Fate's Gamble: Round Two
by Lupine Horror
Summary: Sequel to Fate's Gamble. Harry has finished with his original world (aside from a few visits) and now it's time to follow through on his promise to Fate to set right another world that her meddling didn't have quite the same effect as in his own. Summoned to fight Voldemort once more, Harry decides to have some fun while he's there. This is fan fiction, I only own the plot.
1. Summoned

AN: Here it is, the first chapter of the sequel! This story with have a different feel compared to the prequel (I hope), and will be a little more comedic. We all know Harry could annihilate Voldemort with ease, but where's the fun in simply writing a one chapter curb-stomp 'story'? This story will be less about fighting, and more about character actions and knock on effects. It's also been brought to my attention that HP is supposed to be around the same time as the Fourth Grail War (It's what I was told, don't quote me on that), so should Harry get involved with Fate/Zero or what? Now that this is out, I'll probably devote some time to getting my Reinforced Series back on track, while also trying to get Touhou 12.3 working properly..

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 1 - Summoned

In the Great Hall of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, on September first, there was the fairly usual event of the sorting going on. Every year, new students would place the Sorting Hat on their heads, the magical artefact would rummage around for a bit, maybe argue with the one wearing it a little, and then call out what house they belonged in.

That was a completely normal affair.

This year's sorting, however, was not quite normal. It was September Nineteen Ninety-Five, and while the students were being sorted, the usually nervous yet slightly boisterous atmosphere was not present. Instead, things were very quiet and subdued.

The reason for this was an event that had happened at the end of the previous school year. Harry Potter, the beloved eldest child of Lily and James Potter, had been killed. It was not an accident, it was premeditated murder done by one Tom Marvolo Riddle, or as he was better known to the Wizarding World in general, Lord Voldemort.

Perhaps some history of the past decade and a half might be better than random trivia?

Things all started when Dumbledore was interviewing a certain someone for the post of Divination. Like in so many other parallel worlds, she gave a prophecy that a child born 'as the seventh month dies' would be the one to stop a Dark Lord with 'the power he knows not'.

Of course, this sort of thing couldn't be simple and private, and it just so happened that said prophecy was overhead by one of the referenced Dark Lord's subordinates. Fortunately, or perhaps not, the Death Eater had only heard part of the prophecy before he was thrown out, but that was sufficient for Voldemort to start hunting down those that could possibly be candidates for it.

Two particular babies were being targeted by Voldemort, one of them being Neville Longbottom, and the other being Harry Potter. Well, Neville Longbottom was a little debatable, as he had been born the day _before_ the last day of the month, whereas Harry Potter had been born on the evening, mere minutes before midnight.

Both of these families went into hiding, using the seemingly awesome but actually really flawed Fidelius charm. Seriously, how is that charm so great? If someone kills the secret keeper, everyone who knows the secret becomes a secret keeper, so one assassination and then pretty much anyone in the know could spread the secret out.

Anyway, the Potters went into hiding using Peter Pettigrew as their secret keeper, though it was spread about that Sirius Black was actually the secret keeper, as a sort of smokescreen to keep Peter – and therefore the secret – safer. The Longbottoms went into hiding using Brian Mckinnon as their secret keeper.

Both couples thought they would be safe, both thought that they had trusted trustworthy people. As it turned out, only one couple had.

On Halloween night Nineteen Eighty-One, Voldemort attacked the Potters' home in Godric Hollow. Peter Pettigrew had turned out to be a traitor, a Death Eater, and had willingly given up the secret of the Potters' location to the Dark Lord Voldemort, and due to the prophecy, he had tried to wipe out the threat himself.

No one really knew what had actually happened that night. The DMLE, when they investigated the scene, found that three killing curses had been cast using Voldemort's magical signature, yet only Harry Potter, the one year old child, had traces of the curse on his body. Voldemort himself was nowhere to be seen.

Lily and James Potter, revealed in a medical exam they'd taken, had apparently been dead for half a minute each, though there was no evidence as to what had caused this. All either of them had remembered was a soft golden light, and an unpleasant twisting in their gut. A man who was walking his dog that night had thought he'd heard a female voice mutter 'let's see how this changes things', but he was dismissed as a crazy.

It was that night that signalled the end of the civil war amongst wizards. Their numbers, never being particular high beforehand, had been decimated to roughly a third of what they had been before. With their leader gone, no longer giving them instructions, the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord's supporters quickly fell apart.

Unfortunately, not that many were incarcerated in prison. A sizeable percentage managed to keep themselves out of trouble with substantial bribes and favours from the right people. It was a sad truth that corruption was rife amongst the influential people in the Wizarding World, and it was also a sad truth that most of the power was held by purebloods who were at least neutral towards the Dark Lord's ideology.

Anyway, after that Halloween night, the Potters became an internationally known family. Well, more accurately _Harry_ Potter became internationally known as being the sole known survivor of the killing curse. The Wizarding World put the fifteen month old baby up on a pedestal, and his parents really didn't know what to do with all of the attention.

With her every action being on the front page of the Daily Prophet, Lily Potter had to become more and more careful about her every decision, acting more and more like a high-class lady. This was difficult for her, as she had come from a lower middle-class family, and she had the fiery temper that was stereotypical of redheads.

James Potter was more used to attention. His parents were wealthy and came from influential families, both of them belonging to the upper class of the Wizarding World. He had also been rather spoilt as a child, given everything he could have ever wanted.

This resulted in the family trying to be something they weren't. Lily Potter was a stay at home mother, who raised her son Harry, and the two children that followed him. Rose and Blake Potter, twin sisters, grew up together, doing everything with one another, and weren't the most sociable of people, relying heavily on only their twin.

Things stayed this way for ten years, and then in Nineteen Ninety-One, Harry Potter attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a first year. He made an instant enemy of Draco Malfoy, but aside from that, he managed to gain quite the strong following.

Harry was a popular kid, and very good at magic, though Severus Snape claimed that was purely because James Potter had taught his son for several years before said boy attended school. Not that there was anything unusual about that, it was a pretty common amongst pureblood, and some mixed-blood, families.

Over the year, several interesting events happened that should perhaps be highlighted. An argument with Draco Malfoy resulted in the pair racing each other, despite Madam Hooch's shouted protests. This resulted in Harry, after his display of exceptional skill, joining the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

On Halloween later that year, Harry went to the rescue of one Hermione Granger. It turned out that Ronald Weasley had insulted the girl earlier that day, leading to the girl crying on the bathroom. Of course, that just had to have been the same time a troll was loose in the castle, one which ended up _inside_ the same girls' bathroom that the Granger girl was crying in.

Aside from a small incident involving a dragon that Hagrid was trying to raise, the final event of major note was when Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom all went to the forbidden floor corridor, passed through the traps in place, and Harry confronted Professor Quirrel, who was trying to steal the philosopher's stone for his master, an actually not fully dead Voldemort.

In second year, things kicked off during the summer, before Harry Potter had even arrived at Hogwarts. A house elf, Dobby by name, came to the Potters' residence and attempted to try and talk Harry into not going to Hogwarts that year. Naturally, it did not succeed.

All was normal for the first few months of the academic year, aside from some third years getting injured playing with the Whomping Willow, and it was not until Halloween that strange events began to happen once more. Mrs. Norris, the cat of Argus Filch, the caretaker, was found petrified outside of a girls' bathroom.

Throughout the year, there were several more incidents that resulted in the petrification of students, and even one ghost. Harry Potter, amongst others, believed that a member of Slytherin house was responsible for the attacks, having inherited his fathers strong _distaste_ for all things 'dark' and Slytherin. Of course, with the whole thing apparently being done by a supposed 'heir of Slytherin', it made it fairly easy to blame Slytherin students.

Harry Potter, unlike in other worlds, was never a suspect in the attacks. When Draco Malfoy set a snake on him in the sole Duelling Club session they had, he blasted it with a curse instead of even thinking about trying to talk to it. Even if he had understood what it was saying, he wouldn't have paid it any attention, he _really_ didn't like snakes.

Near to the end of the year, a student was actually kidnapped and taken to the Chamber of Secrets. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, with the not so helpful Gilderoy Lockhart, went down to the chamber, which was found via a combination of Hermione Granger's deduction and the story of Moaning Myrtle's death.

When they went down into the Chamber, Lockhart tried to erase the memories of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, just like how he'd 'achieved' all of his other accomplishments, but he was using Ron's broken wand, which back-fired on him, erasing his own memory, and causing a cave in which separated the two of them from Harry.

Anyone think Fate is dicking around with Harry here, or is this just a coincidence?

Anyway, moving rapidly on, Harry entered the Chamber of Secrets, chatted with a guy who claimed to be a memory sealed inside a diary for fifty years, killed a basilisk with the aid of a cool sword, a talking hat, and a burning bird, saved the damsel in distress, and brought everyone back up into the school proper.

You know the sort of thing, what any normal kid does at school, right? Though the scolding he got from his mother for not confiding in them was probably fairly ordinary at least.

Surprisingly, third year was rather quiet and boring. It was the year that Harry Potter twin sisters finally started school as first years, though they seemed to prefer each others' company over their classmates, and they also didn't spend much time with their brother either. Oh, they were both sorted into Hufflepuff, if anyone was wondering.

The only thing that might be worth mentioning is a certain rat, that had evaded capture for twelve years finally got desperate enough to seek out the one it served before. Not that anyone was really aware of this or anything, Wizards not really thinking about the multitude of muggle aeroplanes that an intelligent rat animagus might be able to sneak onto.

In Harry Potter's fourth year, things really started to go down the crapper, starting on Halloween! Is anyone seeing a pattern here? What, was Harry Potter's life a book written out by an author that really liked – or hated – Halloween or something? Anyway, regardless of that, his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, meaning he had to compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, going up against three other, of age, students.

In the first task, he had to get past a dragon, which he did with minor injuries. In the second task, he had to retrieve a hostage from the mer-folk village at the bottom of the lake, one Ginny Weasley who he was apparently quite involved with. In the third, and final task, he had to navigate a maze filled with traps and magical creatures, which he did.

This is where things _really_ go bad, for Harry Potter at least.

It turned out that the cup in the centre of the maze was a portkey, and it transported Harry Potter to a graveyard, where he was tied to a gravestone and had his blood forcibly used in a ritual to revive Voldemort. The Dark Lord then called his followers to him, casually tortured and belittled them a bit, and then duelled against Harry Potter.

During the time Harry was with Voldemort, the people back at Hogwarts had not been idle. Upon discovering a champion had been kidnapped, especially one as important as Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, Aurors were called and they began trying to trace where the portkey had gone, using the magical residue from its activation to pinpoint a location.

When they had gotten an approximate location of the portkey, a large group of Aurors, as well as several other people willing to assist, apparated and portkeyed into the area. They managed to find the nearest source of magic, and began to converge on where Harry Potter and Voldemort were duelling.

They arrived just in time to witness Harry Potter's death.

After a little mocking and grandstanding, Voldemort and his Death Eaters fled the scene of the crime, leaving everyone scared. Voldemort, the worst Dark Lord in history (or so he was claimed to be, despite Gellert Grindelwald being the magical Hitler, but whatever) had returned, and he had also killed Harry Potter, the one who had defeated him last time he had risen.

People panicked, and rightly so, but Dumbledore was concerned for a very different reason. The prophecy that is mentioned in the sixth actual paragraph of this story told Dumbledore that only Harry Potter could kill Voldemort, or that's how he chose to interpret it at least.

Of course, there was the problem of there no longer _being_ a Harry Potter to fight against the Dark Lord, so he tried to find a replacement. The other potential prophecy candidate was out, there was no way that Neville Longbottom could stand up to Voldemort, and then Dumbledore got the 'bright' idea of summoning an alternate Harry Potter to do the deed for them.

Now, there _was_ the master of the Kaleidoscope, Zelretch, who would undoubtedly be able to find the sort of boy that Dumbledore needed. This, however, wasn't an option. For one thing, Wizards and Magi tended not to get along too well. Wizards claimed this was because all Magi were immoral bastards who would do anything they could to reach their 'Akasha', no matter how reprehensible or depraved it was.

Magi would undoubtedly claim something different, but they were the enemy, so why would Wizards listen to their side of the story?

Another reason for not going to Zelretch, even if Wizards and Magi had been best buddies, was because the man was... somewhat unhinged, or at least had a damaged moral compass, perhaps he was lacking in sanity. No one could quite agree what actually was the matter with the man – maybe it was just his unconventional humour? - but he wasn't the most approachable of people even when he was in his home dimension, and not messing about with whichever poor schmuck had gotten his attention.

As it so happened, Dumbledore _did_ find something. He believed that this was a sign that fate was shining on him – or is that Fate? And is she really favouring Dumbledore here? - and he went over the ritual he'd found multiple times, making sure it was what it said it was.

Dumbledore would have carried out said ritual then and there, if not for one thing, the ritual required an absolutely_ tremendous_ amount of power, power Dumbledore simply didn't have. So, instead of trying to gather together a group of people willing to help, Dumbledore was a bit sneaky.

He let people know that he had a ritual to summon an alternate Harry Potter to fight for them that he would perform at Hogwarts on September 1st, but what he didn't tell them was the power requirement. He slightly modified the ritual circle, so that everyone who was present when it was activated became a part of it, each one adding their magical reserves to the spell, and therefore fulfilling the power requirement for the ritual.

That meant the entire student body would be a part of it, as well as all of the staff. Ministry representatives would also be there, as would Lily and James Potter. Dumbledore had thought that it would be best to have them nearby when the alternate Harry Potter arrived, a means of keeping him nearby and more easily steered towards his destiny, and both parents had jumped at his offer, James becoming an assistant Transfiguration professor, and Lily becoming an assistant for Charms.

Now was the moment of truth, however. Dumbledore looked around the hall as he prepared to speak the necessary incantation for the ritual, the Elder Wand in his hand. This was it, right now he would be summoning a Harry Potter, one that had _already defeated_ Voldemort, and so would be able to do so again!

There was a bright flash of light, and when everyone had blinked the spots out of their eyes, they looked towards the ritual circle, to see their saviour returned to them! They didn't get quite what they were expecting.

In front of the teachers' table, there was now a chaise longue, with three teenage girls laid on it. One of them seemed to have white angel wings coming out of her back, but that could easily be someone messing around with some human transfiguration, things like that happened after all, and he had heard of some fetishists who were into that sort of thing...

At the foot of the bed, dressed in casual muggle clothing, sat Sirius Black. He had a newspaper folded up in his hands, and he was looking around the Great Hall curiously, not seeming bothered by the three young females snuggled up together next to him, or the two cats laid atop them and the fairy by their heads.

There was silence for a few moments, and it just so happened that Professor Minerva Mcgonagall was the one to break it. It also seemed that she'd focused on something she found rather scandalous, as she shrieked at a volume and pitch that normally only Molly Weasley seemed able to manage.

"Sirius Black! What do you think you're doing with three teenage girls like that!?"


	2. Initial Introductions

AN: Okay, okay, I know this chapter took forever to come out, and I know that I said that I would be doing some of my Reinforced series, but my other fic has hit a bit of a wall that I'm trying to smash through at the minute, and writing this story is very difficult. The problem here is that I have very little structure in place, no set events that I can work with, expand upon, and describe. It's also troublesome in that humour is somewhat anathema to my usual writing style, so writing humorously is not coming easy to me. Still, I hope this chapter is enjoyable to you all.

Ah, another thing I want to say is this: Where should this story go next in the series? I already have plans for the Sekirei world, but that's three stories away, and I have plans for Highschool DxD as well, and that's going to be even further down the line than Sekirei. So, I want suggestions of which series to cross this over with, and when I've got a list of them, I'll stick a poll up for you all to vote on. You can suggest anything you want, from economy-based series like Spice and Wolf, to harem style series like Shuffle, to other things like the Inheritance Cycle. Just give me things to put in the poll, please.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN & The Legendary Reaper

Chapter 02 – Initial Introductions

Sirius froze for a moment. His eyes then locked on Mcgonagall, before shifting to the 'three' females on the chaise longue next to him. He looked back at Mcgonagall, and then back at the girls again. Deliberately, he set the newspaper in his hands down on the couch side he had access to and crossed his arms in front of him, forming an X shape.

"Nuh-uh, no way, no how, just no." He said. "I am not being accused of that, that's just wrong, and I would _never_ even consider dating one of these three, no matter what age they were!" No mention was made of the fact that only one of the 'girls' was less than a millennia old.

The purple-haired girl laid between the other two pouted and sat up. "Do you not care about us, Siri?" She sniffed quietly, and even with that strange blindfold in the way, the observers could easily imagine how her eyes would be watering with the onset of tears. "I thought we were close, that we were... a family. Are we not a family after all?" Her voice was shaking with depression and rejection, and it was radiating 'broken bird syndrome' so badly that even Satan would feel a tugging at his heart strings, compelled to offer comfort to the young female.

Sirius Black simply shuddered. "Cut it out, Harry, you're _really_ not helping matters here." He said. "And I can feel the seat vibrating with your laughter, so stow the crocodile tears."

"Harry?" Dumbledore enquired, looking at the girl once again. "Harry _Potter_?" The purple-haired girl nodded her head. "I see, our two worlds _are_ different after all. Here, Harry Potter was born a boy, the 'Boy-Who-Lived', whereas you are a girl, Miss. Potter. I assume Harry is short for Harriet or something?" He mused.

That proved too much for the black haired girl in sunglasses who had been laid next to Harriet, and she proceeded to roll off the chaise longue, laughing even as she hit the floor. The winged girl also had a small smile on her face, while her shoulders shook slightly with mirth. "Will you introduce your companions to us?" He asked.

Harriet shrugged. "Sure. This is Sirius Black, who you apparently know, and these two girls are rather close to me, they are V/V and Alt. This midget here is Holly." That last bit was directed at the fairy girl.

"Oi!" The one apparently called Holly made her indignation known for that little title. "I'm not a midget!"

"You're twelve inches tall, Holly, that's pretty short." Harriet shot back… shortly.

Holly huffed, before suddenly growing in size, until she was about three inches short of four feet. "I'm working on that, I'm almost at four feet, see?"

Harry pulled the shorter – but most definitely adult proportioned, she was quite, well, 'stacked' as it were – female into a hug and patted her on the head. "I see, I'm sure it'll only take you a couple more months to reach a proper adult height."

Holly's cheeks flushed red at the close contact, and with her concentration broken she shrank back to being only twelve inches high, before alighting on Harry's shoulder and looking at everyone in the room. Her gaze lingered on a few individuals in particular, and Dumbledore took note of that, it could be important.

"Well, it- it looks like we've got a daughter instead of a son..." James Potter said, trailing off as he looked at the girl. He was slightly choked up, remembering this world's dead Harry, but he was trying to forge forwards, trying to ignore the wounds the loss had dealt him.

Sirius sighed. "Don't be fooled, Prongs. Harry is _Harry_, not Harri_et_."

Lily Potter, her eyes red from all of tears she had been crying the past months, asked Sirius. "What do you mean, does she not like her full name?" Thoughts of Nymphadora Tonks popped into her head, the metamorphmagus that hated her first name.

"No, I mean that's not Harriet, it's Harry, he's a guy." Sirius shook his head, voice muffled slightly by the face-palm he'd done when not one person realised that Harry was, in fact, male. Honestly, that boy was too beautiful for his own good!

"WHAT?" Hogwarts shuddered slightly from the onslaught of noise.

xxxxx

Lily Potter looked at this alternate to her son, closely examining 'him'. Her eyes were rimmed red, having hardly gone a day without crying over the loss of her first-born. When Dumbledore had mentioned the ritual that he wanted to conduct, a tiny spark of hope within her had said that, no matter how unlikely or even impossible it might be, perhaps it had a chance of bringing back her own son into this world.

However, instead of bringing back her son from the land of the dead, this... purple-haired youth had been brought before them instead. She could be forgiven for thinking him a girl, he was after all ridiculously beautiful, though there was something ethereal about him, something inhuman, like he transcended simple human attractiveness.

Perhaps it was better this way, a small voice whispered in the back of her mind. If Harry had actually looked like this world's counterpart of him, she might have felt as if she was trying to replace him, to forget about her original son's death by putting this person in her son's place.

That wouldn't be remotely possible now. All of the photos around the house that showed their son, flying on his broom, playing with the Marauders in their Animagus forms, playing with his friends, sitting under a tree with his girlfriend, and so many more, were of a black-haired boy with green eyes, a fair tan, and broad shoulders.

Trying to overlay an image of him onto this slender, purple-haired, blindfold wearing, feminine boy was an exercise in futility. This was much better, as it would allow her to form a relationship with him without the feeling of nagging betrayal of having replaced her son.

xxxxx

James Potter, upon hearing about this apparently being his 'son', had a few thoughts that danced through his mind. One of those thoughts was that this Harry had an excellent seeker's build. Another thought was a question regarding his 'son's' sexual leanings, it really wasn't normal for a guy to look that girly, right?

James knew that there were loads of potions that could permanently change someone's appearances, but those were usually used by rich upper-class pureblood women in order to look more attractive or younger. The potions in question were expensive and difficult to brew, as the slightest mistake could cause unexpected changes when said potion was consumed.

James didn't know what to think when he saw this version of his son, it was not what he was expecting at all. He had thought that Harry was Harry, and he would be just the same as the son he'd known and lost. He thought that he'd be taking a black haired boy out to Quidditch games, playing pranks with him, messing around in his Animagus form, teaching him the fine art of seduction, and hopefully blotting out the hole in his heart caused by the first Harry's untimely death.

That... that was simply not possible.

Even if this version of Harry liked Quidditch as much as his alternate had, even if he did like playing tricks, he was simply too different to be _his_ Harry. He could not fool himself, no matter how much he might try, to equate his son with this boy stood in front of them was simply impossible.

xxxxx

Harry internally snickered as he saw the conflicted expressions cross the faces of various individuals. Obviously, seeing him and comparing him to the Harry Potter they all knew would be rather... jarring. It would help Harry himself though, if they already acknowledged him as different, they were less likely to try and fit him into their 'correct' image of the boy.

"So," He said, looking around. "I get that I've been summoned, that's pretty obvious. What I don't get is _why_. Is it normal to kidnap random people from alternate realities, drag in anyone who was close by, and then drop them in the middle of a large group of people?"

Dumbledore smiled, happy to get to the heart of the matter. "My boy-"

"Not yours!" V/V and Altrouge cut him off instantly. "Ours, and maybe a few others as well..."

The Sirius Black still sat on the edge of the chaise longue chuckled as the TYPE and the Dead Apostle Ancestor each clamped themselves onto one of Harry's arms. Everyone else in the hall, somewhat taken aback, just blinked in sync, unsure of what to make of that statement.

"Okay, so not my boy then." Dumbledore said slowly, not used to people acting like that towards him. "Harry, we have a problem that we need you to fix. You see, the Dark Lord Voldemort of this world killed your alternate in this world and is set to bring dark times to our world, and so we summoned you, a hero, to slay the foul being for us."

Harry rubbed at his ears. "Did I just hear you right?" He asked. "Voldemort killed a fourteen year old boy, so you believed that the only acceptable response was to... kidnap _another_ young boy from another world and make him into a weapon to get rid of your own problem?"

"The ritual was altered in order to summon someone who had already defeated their foe, so you have already killed Voldemort once, a second go shouldn't be too much to ask, right?" Dumbledore frowned a little there. "However, we were expecting someone a little... older. How old are you again, twelve? Thirteen?"

Harry sighed. "I'm fifteen." Maybe he should consider shape-shifting himself into an older-looking body. As comfortable as he was looking like he did, it could easily lead to all sorts of misinterpretations. On the other hand, it was Harry's body, he could do whatever the hell he wanted to it!

"How _did_ you defeat the Dark Lord anyway?" Fudge asked, he and several other Ministry representatives finally making a proper appearance in this fic. "If we knew that, then perhaps we could come with a strategy or something to stop him ourselves!"

Harry had to give Fudge points for that in his mind, it was a rather intelligent idea after all. Too bad he was in the mood for trolling them some more, not to mention they couldn't replicate his feat anyway. "We had a staring contest, I won." Was Harry's reply.

"A _staring_ contest?" Mcgonagall asked in disbelief. "You really expect us to believe that?"

"It's the truth." Sirius nodded his head. "It does leave some details out however, there _is_ a reason Harry wears that blindfold after all." A partial truth. Harry wore his own Breaker Gorgon because he liked it, he could control hid eyes without it now, after his experiments had sorted that issue out.

"Oh, and what reason might that be?" Dumbledore asked.

"One that I'm not telling you, perhaps? What is this, an interrogation?" Harry replied.

"No, nothing of the sort." Dumbledore waved him off. "We are just, understandably, curious about how you defeated him before, and whether the same method will work once again. Of course, if you really defeated him in a... staring contest, then he shouldn't be too much of an issue for you, should he?"

"Whoever said I was going to defeat him for you?" Harry once again had to suppress his laughter at the stunned silence his words had caused.

Of course, the silence didn't last, and utter chaos erupted all around the hall. Harry and those who had arrived with him sat in a little bubble of calm provided by his magic, while the Aurors present, along with the professors, tried to rein in the panicking students.

xxxxx

Harry looked around Dumbledore's office, seeing how different it might be from the one in his birth world. As far as he could tell, the differences were mostly superficial. The Sword of Gryffindor was on the wall, which he promptly added to his stolen Unlimited Blade Works copy. This office didn't have the picture taken of the Christmas dinner in third year that the other Dumbledore had put up. There were other changes, but those were the most noticeable, despite how minor they were.

Sirius was sitting on a chair off to the side of Harry, and he was also looking around the room. He was mentally rolling around giggling. The chaos that had descended in the Great Hall when Harry had asked why he would defeat Voldemort for them... well, it outdid the Marauder's food fight of '76 by quite a wide margin. No wonder they had decided to take things to a more private setting.

Now he was watching as everyone else in the room stared at Harry closely. Harry himself was sitting on a chair he'd conjured – though it was more like a small sofa, having more than enough space for V/V and Alt to cuddle up next to him from either side – and the two Lens were sitting on the arms of said chair, while Holly maintained her perch on Harry's shoulder.

Of course, three of Harry's Servants were also present, if astralised. Illya and Tamamo were leaning against Harry's seat on either side, while Jack was closely watching those behind Harry, who he couldn't see directly. Sirius couldn't see those three, but he knew they were somewhere nearby at least.

Sirius then turned his attention back to those who were actually _in_ the room. Dumbledore was there, of course, and so were the four heads of Houses. The Minister for Magic was there, as well as... Umbridge? Yeah, his secretary or something like that, she was there. Amelia Bones was present, and so was Rufus Scrimgeour, who headed the Aurors under Madam Bones.

There were a few Aurors scattered about as well, two of them keeping close to the Minister, but let's ignore them for now, and focus on who else was there, which was pretty much a selection of people from Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix. Alastor Moody was one of the ones behind Harry that Jack was keeping a close eye on, Remus was standing with Lily and James, all three of them fairly close to Dumbledore.

For some currently unknown reason, Molly Weasley of all people was present, and there was someone else standing back in the shadows, a female if the shape of the silhouette was anything to go by. Sirius was the only human in the room able to read Harry's more subtle displays of emotion – well, subtle in that he wasn't blatantly broadcasting them, _no one_ would be able to read Harry if he actually clamped down full control of himself – and was wondering why Harry was directing such a sense of amusement at the hidden woman.

"Now then, my de-" Dumbledore cut himself off as V/V and Alt were about to open their mouths. "_Harry._" He stressed the name, and Sirius almost laughed out loud at Dumbledore's eyebrow that was twitching just the slightest bit. "Now, Harry, can you expl- Please pay attention to me!"

Sirius looked across to Harry, and saw that he had a book open in his lap that he was reading. The book looked rather odd, it seemed to be made from some black stone of some kind – obsidian? - and had golden hinges. From what Sirius could see, it was written in Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

That book looked slightly familiar.

"Harry, you know those movies I was watching the other day?" Sirius asked.

"Yep." Harry replied.

"Is that a replica or the genuine article?" Sirius was pretty sure it was the latter, but he could hope, dammit!

"The latter. _She_, as you might or might not expect, trusts me to look after it, and who would be stupid enough to give me a book and not expect me to read it? Oh, I also have its counterpart as well." Harry's answer made Sirius flinch, _why_ would Death trust the 'Book of the Dead' to Harry of all people? Okay, he _would_ keep them safe, but there was no guarantee he wouldn't use something he found in them, and goodness knows _what_ was written in those pages.

"Mr. Potter, put that away and pay attention to the headmaster when he's talking to you!" Mcgonagall reprimanded Harry.

Harry sighed, before the book in his hands was engulfed by shadows, which then disappeared, taking the book with them. He then looked up at Dumbledore, or at least he _appeared_ to be looking at the elderly human, his blindfold was pointing in the right direction at least.

"Mr. Potter, Harry, can you please explain what you said back in the Great Hall? It sounded to me like you weren't concerned about Lord Voldemort." Dumbledore asked. "Are you really so callous that you'd leave innocents to suffer?"

"Since when is it my job to keep your Dark Lord in check?" Harry shrugged. "Also, what evidence is there that he _is_ a dark lord? Alternate realities are all different, some slightly and others more so, so as far as I know, 'Voldemort' could be a charity worker with a thing for rescuing orphaned kittens, and you could be puppy-eating monsters."

"Mr. Potter, how dare you accuse the Headmaster of being anything other than the great man he is!" Mcgonagall admonished Harry, glaring sternly at him. "We are trying to sort out a major problem here and you are being deliberately unhelpful."

Despite the blindfold in the way, the weight of the look Harry graced the Transfiguration professor with was enough to silence the room. His lips were compressed into a thin line, and he was totally unmoving as he maintained 'eye' contact with the older woman.

When Harry spoke, his light, musical voice was layered with a rather different tone. This one was smooth, soft, and _dangerous_. "Yes, you are trying to solve a problem. The issue is the method which you chose. Rather than confronting the predicament yourself, you instead chose to kidnap someone else and are attempting to force them to solve it for you."

"Mr. Potter-" Mcgonagall went to reply, but she didn't manage to get any further.

"Tell me." Harry said, cutting her off. "Aside from summoning me, and those that came with me, what changes have been made? Have the Auror Department received a larger budget? Have any hit-wizards been hired to remove the threat? Have any bounties been placed on the head of known Death Eaters? What have you done to ensure that the populace stays safe?"

Amelia Bones stepped forwards at that point. "Mr. Potter, I can assure you that I have done all I can in regards to my department. For security reasons, I can't tell you _exactly _what I've done, but I can tell you that restrictions have been tightened, the alert level has been raised, and I have petitioned for my Aurors to receive funding for further training."

Harry tilted his head in the Minister's direction.

"We can't give them money we don't have!" He exclaimed. "Taxes are being raised, but the money isn't instantly just going to appear out of nowhere. When we do have the money, I assure you that the first Department to get some padding for their budget will be the DMLE."

Harry's attention was caught, to his slight surprise, by Filius Flitwick next. The part-goblin's tone was serious, and there was a hard look in his eyes. "As you will probably have expected, the Dementors almost instantly transferred their allegiances to the Dark Lord. I made efforts at the end of last year to instruct the students on how to cast the Patronus charm. I have received surprisingly good results, and there are now a number of students capable of practising said charm."

Dumbledore nodded his head. "There has been an idea floating around for a means to practise the spell, a club that gets Patronus charms to fight each other. The focus neccesary to direct and strengthen the patronus would be a good way to learn more about regulating how much magic a student puts into their spells. Perhaps you could be taught the charm and join in the club."

Harry snorted. "I already know the Patronus charm, I learnt it years ago. There _is_ a reason I'm known as the Infinite Archive after all."

"Infinite Archive?" Lily Potter asked in confusion.

"A corporeal patronus?" Flitwick inquired curiously, at the same time as his former student. "Could you show us?"

"My patronus is a little large to show you in here, it's really not small, and it does take on a rather... distinctive form." Harry answered the Charms professor.

Sirius was the one who answered Lily's question. "Yeah, Harry's called the Infinite Archive, amongst other things. He got that title because of the ridiculous amounts of knowledge he's assimilated. He knows everything, from History, to Mathematics, to Literature, and as for Magic, well, I don't think there's a spell you could name that Harry doesn't know and is capable of casting." His pride for Harry shone through as he told them that, puffing up and grinning widely.

"I highly doubt that." Severus Snape spoke up with a slight sneer. "A _brat_ that hasn't even taken his OWLs being given such a title? Are you sure that you are not simply enamoured with the boy's first title? We have already seen what happens to the Boy-Who-Lived, he is not the Boy-Who-Lived-_Twice_, and with good reason."

Harry shrugged. "I'm not here to make you think one thing or another, I'm here because you lot kidnapped me, something that seems to keep disappearing from this discussion, almost like you lot are avoiding the issue and trying to offload your Voldemort problem onto me."

Harry looked around at them all with a raised eyebrow.

"We still haven't proven that you are the '_good guys_' yet either." He added, with heavy disdain at the mention of a concept of 'good'. His personal belief was that good and evil was a matter of perspective, one man's hero is another's villain after all.

"We are _trying_ to solve our Voldemort problem, that is the reason we summoned you in the first place." Dumbledore seemed to be getting to the end of his tether, and his words were a little sharper than they had previously been, and his grandfatherly mask was slipping slightly.

"Like I said before, what motivation do I have to do so?" Harry replied blandly. "What reason do I have to kill someone for you?" Harry sighed. "You seem to be suffering under some sort of delusion that makes you believe that I will simply do what you say, no questions asked, and that will be that. I'm sorry to tell you this, but the world doesn't work that way."

"Mr. Potter, we are trying to be reasonable with you here-" Mcgonagall started to say before getting cut off by the purple-haired boy.

"Reasonable, really?" Harry asked, his voice going even softer, making a shiver run down the backs of everyone present as a hint of malice began to creep into his tone. The temperature seemed to drop rapidly, and shadows seemed to dance just out of view. "How is it reasonable to kidnap me from my own reality and expect me to help you? No, you don't even expect me to help you, you expect me to just, what, click my fingers and make everything okay, is that it?"

Harry sat back in his seat, V/V and Alt cuddling closer to him from either side. "There's also the matter of how I would return home. Summoning only calls something towards you, and Banishing only drives it away. There is no way for you direct me back to my own world, so what are you going to do about that, may I ask?"

Sirius knew the boy was only twisting the knife in their wound here, it wasn't exactly difficult for him to return home after all, he had been going between worlds for _years_ now. They didn't need to know that though, and he couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces when Harry eventually revealed that he could use the Kaleidoscope, albeit with _far_ less skill than Zelretch could.

Dumbledore went to open his mouth, but Harry overrode him immediately. "How do you propose to do that, which is impossible with your magic? How do you suggest I could return to my own world, my own home, my own family? Are you so selfish to believe that they don't matter in the 'grand scheme of things'?"

"But your parents are right here, Harry!" Dumbledore indicated Lily and James Potter. "While their will almost certainly be small differences, I'm sure you could grow to love them just as much as you always have done."

"I don't have any love for James or Lily Potter." Harry's words shocked everyone. "I never got the chance to know them after all. Neither of my birth parents survived that attack on Halloween, and I grew up with other people, treasuring them, and while I can acknowledge those two there, they are simply not the ones who raised me."

A lot of people turned to Sirius at that point, and the dog animagus threw his hands up in a sign of surrender. "I didn't raise Harry either. When James and Lily were killed, I- I was mad with rage, and I went after the rat. Unfortunately, the rat was smarter than I expected, and I was framed for his crime, as well as his murder and that of twelve muggles when he faked his death. I was thrown into Azkaban without a trial for twelve years. In actual fact, you could say that I've only really known Harry for about a year now myself."

"So then who did raise Harry?" Lily asked, her voice small and weak.

"It doesn't matter right now." Harry replied. "Suffice to say, I grew up with a family of my own, I lived my life – heck, I even offed my own world's Voldemort – and now, just when things are calming back down, you rudely rip me away from them and want me to be your toy soldier. If I had a reason to fight Voldemort, I would, but I don't, and that's that."

"Are you really that much of a monster that you will not defend the innocent any more?" Dumbledore asked. "Are you so heartless that the thought of the Light being eclipsed by darkness does not move you to action? Where is the Harry Potter we all know and love? Where is our saviour?"

"Okay, point one, why can't the 'innocent' defend themselves? Add onto that the fact it's the Law Enforcement's job to deal with terrorists. Second item on the list: Light? Dark? Are you living in some sort of fantasy novel? The world isn't so black and white, and assuming that Light is good and Dark is evil is the thought processes of the ignorant and children. As for the 'Harry Potter you know and love', from what you lot are spouting, it sounds like he is dead, and I am no replacement, and nor am I something as ridiculous as a _'saviour'_!" Harry rolled his eyes at that last world.

Everyone was silent for a moment, but it looked like Dumbledore was going to try and bulldoze his way through things and try and get Harry into the slot he wanted him in. "It's getting late, and I'm sure everyone is tired." The Headmaster said. "Why don't we all go home and get some sleep? I'm sure we can sort out any issues we have in the morning."

There was some grumbling, but general agreement seemed to be the consensus. The Ministry employees were the first to leave, Fudge going through the floo with two Aurors beside him, some being sent on ahead, and some following immediately afterwards. Strangely, that Umbridge woman stayed behind.

Harry had remained in his seat, and raised one eyebrow above his blindfold when Dumbledore tried to shoo him off to bed. "You have yet to inform me of where I am to sleep for the duration of my time here." He told Dumbledore. "Nor do I currently have any clothing but what I am currently wearing, and the same is true for the others as well."

"Why, your bed in Gryffindor tower is waiting for you, did you expect to be housed somewhere else?" Dumbledore asked him. The teachers, who had not left the office yet, listened into the conversation, or, in the case of one Severus Snape, added their own caustic words.

"A regular student dormitory not good enough for the Boy-Who-Lived?" He mocked. "Were you expecting special treatment, a room to yourself and a host of house elves for your personal use perhaps? If you're not even going to do the job you were summoned for, why should we bend over backwards for you?"

"I never said that, so stop putting words in my mouth." Harry shot back at Snape, a hint of irritation leaking into his voice. "As for Gryffindor, whoever said I was sorted into that House? Just because my alternate in this world was one doesn't mean I was one as well."

"In that case, I suppose a sorting would be best!" Dumbledore seemed pleased, as he lifted the Sorting Hat off a high shelf and placed it on his desk in front of him. "How does that sound to you, Hat? Are you willing to sort Harry here into the correct house?"

The hat sighed. "Stick me on his head, let's see where he belongs."

The teachers hadn't all departed yet, and the ones which were on the way to the door stopped and regarded Harry curiously. Several of them seemed to be trying to identify the symbol on his forehead, before the hat was placed on his head, hiding it from view.

"What in the name of Merlin is this!?" The hat shouted out immediately upon trying to access Harry's mind.

"What?" Dumbledore perked up, having thought the hat would simply sort Harry, not react as if it had been set on fire. This was interesting. "Is there... something wrong in his mind?"

"I haven't even gotten _into_ his mind yet." The Sorting Hat replied. "It's the way it's structured that's so strange. I've sat on many heads, millions of wizards and witches, of all ages, I've even sat on the heads of Magi seven times in my existence, and once upon the head of a Dead Apostle Ancestor. Each mind is different, but they all have similarities. This one, it does not resemble the mind of a wizard, nor even a magus. There's something like the echo of an apostle to it, but nothing more than that, it's... simply indescribable. I like it!"

"You... like it?" Dumbledore asked, somewhat dumbfounded.

"Yes, I do." The hat replied. "It's new and interesting, why wouldn't I like it?"

Harry felt the hat try and pierce through his mental defences, but rather than letting it through like he would have the Sorting Hat he was more familiar with, he halted it in its tracks. Sheer surprise radiated off the hat at that, having never been stopped before.

"I can feel a difference between this hat and the one back in the other world." Harry said, examining the magic which the bound the hat together. "This one, unlike its counterpart, is not bound to keep the secrets of those who have their minds read by it, am I wrong?"

Dumbledore blinked. "Of course it's like that, the Sorting Hat is able to ferret out anyone's intentions and can relay anything it finds, that only makes sense. If it finds someone who is a threat, it is able to let us know about it, thus making it a very valuable object. Now, let's get you sorted."

"I can't." The hat replied. "I... can't access his mind." It sounded frustrated, and Harry could guess exactly why that was. Regular Occlumency would be useless against the hat, no wizard's mind would be able to stand against it for very long. Harry's mind, however was rather weird.

Like the Sorting Hat had said, his mind was not structured like a wizard's was. If one were to think about minds in terms of architecture, then a regular human's mind would be an ordinary terraced house, a wizard's mind would be a detached one, and a magus' mind would most certainly have a cellar or something like it. A Dead Apostle's mind would be like a small castle, or perhaps a mansion, while a TYPE's mind would most closely resemble a series of twisting underground passageways, rather like a bee's nest.

Harry's mind was a forest of near dead trees, the ruins of a once grand castle littered throughout it, and rivers of endless curses winding in between. Stalking through the forest were various mental creations of Harry's, from wolves and snakes to bats and birds. Of course, there was an uncountable number of his Primate Murder patronuses in there as well, not to mention various traps and other nasty surprises for any invaders.

Of course, that was only what Harry knew was there. He knew that Serial Phantasm, Tyrant, Dream or Destruction, and Shadow of the Heart had all formed their own little additions and changes to various parts of his mind, and his connection to the Void was also in there as well, so Harry didn't actually know what his mind truly looked like.

"If you think I'm going to just let something into my mind without some sort of guarantee that it's not going to, A, mess around with it, and B, tell everyone what it finds in there, you really must be an idiot." Harry stated blandly. "I'm not stupid enough to let that happen."

"Come now, Harry, I'm sure that you have no deep, dark secrets that the Sorting Hat might share with us. Simply let it in and we can get you sorted into a house." Dumbledore wheedled, wondering what the hat would be able to tell him later. While deep, dark secrets had their own uses, simply knowing how a person thought went a long way to understanding how to guide them in a particular direction.

"Stop laughing, puppy." Harry admonished, conjuring a metal wash basin above a madly laughing Sirius Black, which fell down and smacked him on the head before vanishing. "As for secrets, I have a heck of a lot of them, and I'm not trusting a single one to this tatty piece of enchanted fabric."

The Sorting Hat sat on Harry's head grumbled, partly due to being called tatty, and partially due to Harry not letting him into his mind. "How about an oath?" The hat asked. "I swear that the only thing I will tell them is what House you belong in and nothing else, and you let me examine what's in that mind of yours?"

"What sort of oath would you be swearing, and what sort of repercussions are you willing to risk?" Harry immediately asked back.

"How about an oath of silence? If I took that oath, I would be literally incapable of speaking about you at all, throw in a blanket communication ban and that would prevent me from trying to convey information even with pantomime actions." The hat suggested.

"Throw in a restriction on 'transfer' of information as well and I'll accept that, repercussions... Hmm, how about by the power I embody and the curses I carry? If you even attempt to break the oath you would be subjected to my... magic, before suffering final destruction." Yeah, after the hat had gone through his mind, it would know what being assaulted by Angra Mainyu's curses would mean, and it wouldn't be pleasant.

"Very well." The hat agreed, and gave Harry its oath. Once Harry had made sure the oath was as binding as it could be, and even reinforced it somewhat with his own divine power (Divine punishment was a thing, who'd have thought it?), he then allowed the hat inside his mind.

The people watching the hat sort through Harry's mind were rather surprised at how the hat acted as it tried to sort Harry. The hat, while it was just a piece of fabric, was remarkably expressive. Its reactions ranged from incredulous, to amused, to confused, and to utter horror as well.

After a while, the hat gulped heavily. "I see, now, that... that was most certainly an 'interesting' experience."

"So, which house is Harry going to be sorted into?" Dumbledore asked.

The hat was silent for a few seconds, before it spoke up. "I don't know."

Mcgonagall blinked in surprise, as did many of the others still there. "What do you mean 'you don't know'?" She asked it. "Surely he must be a fit for at least one of the houses."

"Yes, he is." The Sorting Hat replied. "He's a fit for _all_ of the houses. He is fearless, able to tackle any task without hesitation. He's loyal to those who have earned his friendship, willing to go to any lengths for them. He is intelligent, by Merlin is he smart beyond any reasonable limits! As for his cunning, well, he is certainly capable of moulding situations how he wishes, when he does bother with the subtle approach."

"So which house will you sort him into?" Dumbledore asked once again, a little more insistent this time.

"I don't know!" The hat shot back. "I could sort him anywhere, and he has no particular preference or bias."

"Then perhaps he should simply be placed in Gryffindor, it will allow us to-" Dumbledore began, but the hat cut him off.

"Insist on Gryffindor once more and I'll put him in Slytherin just to spite you." The hat growled. Here was a unique mind, and he would be buggered if the Headmaster pigeon-holed Harry as a generic 'hero' of the 'Light', not that it would work on Harry of all people, his sense of morality was a little... askew.

"But-" Dumbledore went to speak again, and was once more cut off.

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted. "There, now he's sorted."

"Great, now can I get some sleep?" Harry asked, feigning tiredness.

"I suppose so, Mr. Potter." Mcgonagall said, flicking her wand at him. Harry raised an eyebrow when nothing happened, and saw her frown deepen as she tried to cast a spell again, with the same result. "Why isn't this working?" She mumbled.

"What are you trying to do?" Harry asked.

"I'm trying to transfigure your outfit into a sensible robe in Slytherin colours." Mcgonagall told him. "For some reason, it's not working as it should. Are you wearing dragon hide?"

"No, my coat is made of basilisk hide." Harry shrugged. "And my clothes are warded to a ridiculous level, so transfiguration ain't going to do anything unless you have the magic of a phantasmal dragon to back your spells up. Besides, I haven't worn a robe in years, and I have no intention of changing that now."

"Basilisk hide?" Mcgonagall wasn't the only one who choked at that. "And what was that about not wearing a robe?"

"Doesn't matter. Now, I think I'll head off to bed, if you don't mind." Harry replied, and before anyone could stop him, he'd managed to slip out of the door, his companions – sans Sirius – accompanying him. Everyone was left blinking at the abrupt departure, aside Sirius, who had noticed Harry's irritation beginning to build. The girls would probably 'calm him down' before tomorrow.

"Well, that's Harry sorted." Sirius drew everyone's attention to himself. "Now, two things, what am I going to be doing while here, and where is my own alternate?" He asked that last bit with a look of slight disappointment mixed with fear, worried about where his counterpart might fit into this world.

Remus saw Sirius' concern and gave him a small grin. "Don't worry, Pads, you're not dead or anything. You went abroad for something, Dumbledore asked you to do it, but you should be back in a few days." Sirius got the hint, Dumbledore had sent him on a mission for the Order of the Phoenix.

Dumbledore continued. "As for where you can stay, I'm sure that one of the guest quarters should suffice, though I'm not entirely sure what you could do while you're here." He would ask Sirius whether he would join the Order another time, when those unaffiliated with it weren't in earshot.

"Before any of that, however, is there anything you'd like to share about Harry, something that would allow us, and his parents, to understand him better?" Dumbledore asked. "You must understand that we were thrown quite off-balance, as while we did expect Harry to be different, well, he seems to be a completely separate individual."

Remus nodded his head. "Yeah, I've been wondering about that. It's been pretty nerve rattling seeing him, especially with how he makes the wolf react. _All_ of them are getting reactions from my wolf, and it's urging me to be careful around them, even those two cats!"

Sirius shrugged. "That's Harry's secret to tell, not mine, I'm not going to divulge anything that Harry's not comfortable you knowing. I will say this, Alt is his best friend, but he does value the opinions of... certain others, and trying to influence him one way or another is a _very_ bad idea." Sirius shuddered. "Trust me when I say that you don't want him mad at you."

"Oh, a prankster like his father, is he?" Remus grinned.

Sirius shook his head. "No, Harry can be _far_ more vicious and inventive than James ever was, and he has a lot more options available." Sirius shuddered again. "Not to mention all of the girls willing to pitch their own suggestions, some of them are almost as scary as Harry when he looses his temper."

"We can discuss this in the morning." Dumbledore interrupted them. "It seems certain members of our group are currently... indisposed, so leaving things for one night is probably for the best." Dumbledore glanced at both James Potter and Severus Snape at this point.

"My son, a _Slytherin?_" James was repeating over and over, the thought not seeming to percolate into his mind.

To be fair, Snape's current state was, if possible, even worse.

Sirius would swear he could hear Snape mutter in a stunned mumble "A Potter, _Slytherin. Slytherin_, Potter."


	3. First Day

AN: Well, first off, some people have been asking me why Harry was sorted at all. I kind of intended to have a little discussion between Harry and V/V in this chapter that would reveal some reasons, but I guess that'll have to wait until next chapter. Oh, also, I met someone the other day that reads my fan fics! It was so weird when Tom suddenly dragged this random guy over to me and told me he was a fan, but it does kind of feel good to actually meet your readers, especially if they have the same first name as you! :P So, shout out to that guy, who has a username that has something to do with ferrets... I think. Ah! Also, two more things. One, how are people liking the Lily here, and there'll be more development of her character next chapter, along with James. Second, there's been talk on the forum of who will be Harry's Saber Servant. Personally, I'm liking the thought of Sarah Kerrigan from Starcraft, the 'Queen of Blades', but what do you guys think?

Also, there's now a poll on my profile for where Harry's going next world.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN and The Legendary Reaper

Chapter 03 – First Day

Altrouge's eyes flickered open, and she snuggled into the warm body beside her, rather comfortable with the position she was currently in.

Wait, warm?

Harry's body wasn't warm, he was technically half-dead, his body should be almost as cold as her own. Her eyes flickered open again, allowing her to see a curtain of blonde hair in her face, and the body her arms were circled around had two protrusions coming from its back, both of them soft as a quilt.

"Hmm? Oh well, V/V is comfortable in her own way." Alt murmured, working out who she was cuddling with. She sat up in the bed slightly and looked around for wherever Harry had disappeared off to. It wasn't difficult to find him, he was simply sitting in a chair in the corner.

"Any particular reason you're not in this bed with us, especially when the room provided it just for us?" Alt asked him.

Harry grinned at her. "I was just getting my hands on a few things." Harry's hair split into several 'tails' and picked up the objects he'd gotten a hold of overnight. There was a diary, a diadem, a ring, a locket, a cup, and a wand. Altrouge recognised all of them, they were Voldemort's horcruxes, minus his snake, and the elder wand that Dumbledore had in his hand yesterday.

"Care to tell me the story?" She asked.

Harry shrugged. "Well, seeing as I was an innocent not-Slytherin in my previous world, I can't be expected to know where the common room is, can I? Even if I did, I don't know the password." Harry whistled innocently, and the look on his face would have had believing him to be the purest of angels, it wasn't, however, fooling Altrouge.

"Anyway, as a result, I had no common room or dormitory to go to, so I went to the next best place, the Room of Requirement, where we are now. Of course, while here, I 'accidentally' came across this interesting diadem, which just so happened to be a horcrux." Harry continued, his grin spreading outwards, splitting his face in two.

"Naturally, I wanted to know if the locations of the horcruxes were all the same in this world as in my last one. I found the ring in the Gaunt shack, the diary in the Chamber of Secrets, undamaged actually, but the Locket I found in the cave where it was originally held. Anyway, with four horcruxes, I separated into myself, Serial Phantasm, Dream or Destruction, and Shadow of the Heart, and headed in the four cardinal directions." Harry's faux innocence was breaking up, not that he was putting all that much effort into maintaining it to begin with.

Altrouge raised an eyebrow. "You used the connection that exists between the soul pieces as compass points on a map to discover where the others were?" It was more statement than question, but Harry nodded all the same. "The other three pieces would be Voldemort himself, Nagini, his snake, and the cup."

Harry nodded his head again. "Nagini and Old and Mouldy are, surprise, surprise, at Malfoy Manor, while Hufflepuff's cup was a little more difficult to locate. The 'compass' spell I used was meant for two dimensions only and didn't tell me how deep underground something was, so I had to search through dozens of Gringotts vaults before I found the one that held the cup."

"What did you do while there?" Alt asked.

"Well, while I was collecting the cup, Holly _might_ have sealed the vault from the inside. Of course, a sealed vault is no good to anyone, so we... liberated the contents of said vault. Afterwards, I might have left a few traps behind to discourage anyone that managed to get past Holly's seal." Harry replied.

Altrouge sighed. "In other words; you robbed them blind, sealed up the door, and laid some rather nasty traps for anyone capable of breaching the seal, is that right?"

"Yep!" Holly chirped from her perch, the arm of the chair Harry was sit on.

"I might have added a few things as well." Tamamo manifested, a grin on her face.

"And I might have cut the door mechanism into pieces too." Illya added, also making an appearance.

"Ah, gold." Jack added, also ditching spirit form.

Harry shrugged. "I was more interested in the books in there than the money, but I took it all anyway. I wonder whose vault it was. As you might have guessed, it certainly wasn't the Lestrange vault, nor a personal one for Bellatrix."

"Does it matter?" Altrouge asked.

"I guess not." Harry replied. "It was just an idle thought."

"Are you going to tear the soul fragments out of them and purify them now? And what's with the wand?" Altrouge looked at the last item. She knew it was a Deathly Hallow, but aside from that she didn't understand why Harry would steal it.

"Yeah, I'll purify them this morning. That'd just leave me with Nagini and Voldemort to deal with, and I can't go after them until May at the earliest. Sooner than that and Fate won't be able to compensate for my presence in this world and it will collapse in on itself." Harry told her. "As for the wand, I'm curious what would happen if I was to gather a second set of the Hallows."

Altrouge raised an eyebrow in curiosity, so Harry decided to explain.

"The Hallows were created by Death, with the intention of bringing those that hold them closer to death. Interpret that literally, and you could call them cursed items that lead those that carry them to death. Sometimes, someone who holds all three survives their 'deathly encounter', which results in an avatar of Death, like me. I'm an oddity though, because I was already so... different when I became an avatar of Death, I became a lot closer to her existence than was expected." Harry explained.

"And now you're wondering just how much closer your existence will become to Death with a second set of Hallows?" Altrouge sighed and buried her face in pillows. "When did you swipe the wand anyway? I'd have thought Dumbledore would notice his most valuable tool just up and disappearing."

"Remember when I was reading from the Book of the Dead in his office?" Altrouge nodded. "Well, while he was distracted, I switched the wand with a shadow copy I'd formed. It'll be more powerful than a regular wand, but it's not the Elder wand, despite me making the two look identical. I'll probably dissolve the fake wand at some point, though I don't know exactly when I'll get around to it." Harry stretched his back out, the vertebrae of his back making a clicking noise as he did so.

There was a stirring next to Altrouge, it seemed V/V was waking up now. They waited for a few moments as V/V slowly came awake, gave a cute yawn, and blinked blearily around herself, taking a moment to gain her bearings. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and looked sleepily at Altrouge.

Harry then had to hold in a laugh as V/V, still half-asleep, pulled Altrouge into a hug and started drifting off to sleep again. Alt's rolled eyes and sigh weren't fooling anyone, she too was amused by her sleeping companion's actions, no matter how much she would deny it.

"That's so cute." Harry grinned. "Where's a camera when you need one..." Harry trailed off, before sticking his hand into a black portal that opened up in the air next to him. "No, that's yet another apple. No, that feels like a book, probably that one I was reading the other day on sex magic. Nope, that's a clarinet, though I have no idea what that's doing in there. Ah, here we are, a camera."

Harry retrieved said object from the portal and quickly snapped off a picture of V/V using Altrouge as a teddy bear. He would say that it would make good blackmail material later, but Alt wasn't bothered by it, and it wasn't like he didn't already have masses of blackmail material on everyone he knew, even Zelretch. That time Harry had drunkenly transfigured the old bloodsucker's clothes into a maid outfit hadn't been the worst of it. Giving Lorelei a picture of the vamp in a pink fairy outfit, wand and tutu included, had been worth it, if only to see the stoic woman cracking up with laughter.

The clicking noise the camera made seemed to grab V/V's attention somehow, and the Aristotle slowly began to awaken. "Good morning, everyone." She yawned, stretching out and cracking her back. It was kind of amusing how _human_ she was acting, especially considering that her purpose at one point had been to wipe humans out.

Harry and Altrouge, as well as the Servants plus Holly, watched quietly as V/V went through the process of waking up. Harry was a little tempted to conjure a bucket of water over her head, but he didn't, that would just be mean. Instead, he busied himself with tearing Voldemort's soul fragments out of the horcruxes he had retrieved last night.

"Hmm, what should I do with these?" Harry wondered, regarding the artefacts he now held in his hair. "All but the diary and ring are founders artefacts, so I suppose the school has possibly the best right to them. Ravenclaw has no living descendants, and Slytherin only has Riddle as an 'heir' of sorts. The Smiths are rumoured to be descended from Helga Hufflepuff, but whenever some sort of proof is asked for, none is ever given."

"You should at least keep hold of them until Voldemort is dealt with." Holly suggested. "If he knew that someone had negated his 'immortality', he might try and make more horcruxes, and I don't know about you, but that would just be a pain in the ass."

"Fair enough." Harry shrugged. The artefacts disappeared into another one of Harry's portals, aside from the ring and diary. The former he removed the resurrection stone from and stored that and the wand separate from the rest, while he simply burned the diary with black fire.

V/V, now pretty much fully awake, looked at Harry and asked, "So, what's today's plan of action?"

Harry shrugged. "I'll take it as it comes. I'm not sure whether I should be going to classes which I could teach, the boredom would kill me. Of course, I'm also pretty sure that they'll try and force me to go to class, or at least determine how skilled I am. I'm unsure how much to show them. You two can go to lesson if you want, you might learn something interesting."

Altrouge arched an eyebrow. "Harry, neither V/V or I are witches, and neither of us possess a magical core. Yes, I have circuits, but circuits and cores are different."

Harry shrugged again. He held his hand out, palm up. Light gathered in his hand, before a brightly glowing orb had coalesced and was hovering there like Harry hadn't just done something that should have been impossible by all the laws of magic in this world.

"And the fact neither of us have four years of magical education behind us?" Altrouge asked, though she was sure Harry would have a solution for that as well.

"I can copy my knowledge into your minds for that. You're both old enough and in control of your minds as to not be overwhelmed by that. If you had been a child, however..." Harry grimaced. "Yeah, there's a reason that's not a viable choice for the Wizarding World, that much information 'downloaded' into a child's mind? Not a good idea."

"And Wands?" Altrouge asked, her lip twitching into a small smile of amusement.

"Either claim they were on the table next to you when we were summoned, and thus left behind, or I can craft something for you myself. It wouldn't be as good quality as something made by Ollivander or another professional, but it would work at least." Harry replied, his lips also twitching into a small smile.

Altrouge let out a soft laugh. "Well, now that that's decided, shall we head to breakfast?"

xxxxx

When Harry entered the Great Hall the next morning, flanked by Altrouge and V/V - the former having put her shades back on again to hide her red eyes, while the latter had asked Harry to teach her a little shape-shifting, enough to hide her wings at least – it was to the murmuring of the entire student body and the professors.

Harry shrugged, giving the image of not being concerned, while his sharp hearing listened in on every conversation in the hall. Most of it was quickly discarded as idle gossip, a lot of it concerning him, but there were odd snippets that caught his attention. Some of the students were discussing what their parents were up to, giving him small, but useful, nuggets of information, others were talking about what was in the paper and what they'd heard about certain events, and others were discussing rumours, which while unreliable, could sometimes prove incredibly valuable.

He took a seat at the Slytherin table, Alt and V/V sitting on either side of him. The three began to eat, none of them oblivious to how the hall had gone quiet, or how everyone seemed to be watching them intently. It was as Harry ate the food before him, he realised just how much of an effect he might have had on the Hogwarts in the world he was born to.

The food he was eating right now was so, damn _greasy!_ Perhaps he'd been spoiled back home, as whenever he wasn't the one doing the cooking, either Shirou or Sakura did it – damn, evil, kitchen stealing monsters! - and all three of them were accomplished cooks, and so was Rin come to think of it, though she was happy to leave the cooking to someone else. Even at Hogwarts, Harry had made sure to 're-educate' the house elves on how to cook. Now, should he do so in this world too?

Harry was brought out of his thoughts when a shadow fell over him. Looking up, he saw Severus Snape looming over him with a sneer on his face. Harry responded with an arched eyebrow that peeked over the top of his blindfold, curious how this encounter would turn out, especially as he could feel seething rage and hatred emanating from the man's soul.

"Where were you last night, _Potter?_ Was the Slytherin dormitory not good enough for you? And where is your uniform? Is the great Harry Potter too good to be seen in Slytherin green? Well, answer me, _boy_, before I give you detention until you leave this school!" Ouchie, it seemed Snape really had a hate on for this world's Harry Potter, and was incapable of separating this new Harry from him.

"Well, seeing as I wasn't a Slytherin in the last Hogwarts, perhaps I might not know where the common room is." Harry stated flatly, not impressed with the intimidation attempt. "Even if I _did_ know where it was, I don't know the password for it, meaning I couldn't get in regardless. As for the issue with my clothes, I was summoned here with nothing except what I was wearing, I don't carry a spare uniform in my pocket."

"So you are completely unprepared for school? Detention with me this Saturday" Snape snarled. "If you are not ready by first period, well, we'll just have to extend that detention, won't we?"

Harry's own reply was a small smile, one that had everyone watching shiver with an unexpected sense of dread.

xxxxx

Up at the teacher's table, James Potter and his wife, Lily, were only being kept in place by a firm grip on their arms. They'd both heard how Snape had disliked their son, and treated him harshly, but to actually see it person was a totally different thing. No longer could they believe that Harry was simply over-exaggerating things, not with the evidence in front of their eyes.

"_Sirius!_" James hissed. "_Why are you stopping us doing anything about this?_"

Sirius just raised one eyebrow at James. "Prongs, I might have only really known Harry for about a year, but even I can recognise that look on his face. Trust me when I say that you don't want to be anywhere _near_ Snape when Harry enacts his revenge." Sirius shivered. "That boy is _vicious!_"

It was very true, and Sirius knew it, he had certainly been on the receiving end of Harry's revenge for the whole 'tricking him into sleeping with a TYPE' thing. One of the things Harry had done in revenge had been to implant the memories of another person into Sirius' mind, and let him experience the last day of their life.

It had been truly horrific, made all the worse by how the day had started. The memories had been of a completely ordinary, mundane male human. He had awoken in the morning, kissed his wife, hugged his children, and gone of to work. However, later that day, giant beings – that the man's mind identified as 'titans' – had attacked. The man had rushed home to see to his family's health, only to arrive quickly enough to see his wife eaten alive, his two children following her. The man was so out of it with fear and rage, that he did not notice another titan behind him, which grabbed him and shoved him in its mouth.

The man's last memories had been the teeth of the titan biting him in half.

Sirius had awoken the next morning to find he'd pissed himself in his sleep, and the horrifying memories didn't fade as dreams usually did. He'd asked Harry about that place, whether it was truly real. In response, Harry had used the Kaleidoscope to take him to that place, to the town of Shiganshina.

Lily gave Sirius a peculiar look when he froze up and began mumbling something under his breath, it sounded something like 'eaten alive, and broken walls', and she was kind of curious about what he was referring to with that. Perhaps she should try talking to... her son, and getting the story from him.

"You're saying that Harry is a prankster?" James asked with a little hope in his voice.

Sirius snorted and shook his head. "Not really. Yeah, he'll occasionally play tricks, but he's usually more focused on research or fighting. No, what you've really got to watch out for is Harry's revenge. Snape's only mildly irritating him right now, so he'll get off light, but if anyone _really_ pisses him off... Well, that's a fate I wouldn't wish on Voldemort."

James' jaw clenched. "Sirius, you need to take this seriously! This is Voldemort we're talking about, the worst Dark Lord that the Wizarding World has ever produced. You keep acting like he's a naughty little child that Harry is going to smack back into line if he ever annoys him."

"James, I _do_ understand what it means to have Voldemort around. What _you_ don't understand is what it's like having Harry around. He's not a normal kid, James, and the sooner you acknowledge that the better. To Harry, Voldemort might as well be a 'naughty little child'. There's simply no comparison between them, to think that Voldemort stands the slightest chance against Harry is ridiculous." Sirius really meant what he was saying, Voldemort was literally incapable of killing, or even seriously inconveniencing Harry at all.

"Is that really so, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked, having overheard the animagus' words. "If that truly is the case, then we can end this war without a dreadful loss of life. I am sure we can find out where Voldemort is currently hiding and-"

Sirius cut him off. "That's not going to happen. Just because a prophecy says that Harry has the ability to off a Dark Lord, doesn't mean Harry actually _will _do it. He has no reason to after all, it's not like he cares about anyone here." Sirius felt James and Lily stiffen beside him, and expanded on what he was saying.

"Right now, in Harry's mind, none of you are anything more than faces and names. He has no emotional attachment to any of you, and truly wouldn't care if you happened to suddenly die. If you were injured and he was nearby, he would likely help, just don't expect him to be proactive about it. Also, he has refused to do anything for you until you do something yourselves." Sirius shrugged.

"Very true." An elegant, female voice said from behind them. "The Origin has decided that he will indeed help this world, but he shan't do so if this world refuses to help itself. Even if Voldemort is beyond you due to a prophecy, there's nothing stopping you targeting his foot soldiers, his suppliers, and his supporters."

"Hey, Serial, what are you doing out and about?" Sirius greeted Harry's manifested apathy.

"You know this woman, Sirius?" Lily asked. "I didn't see her arrive with you."

"Oh, you saw me, but I doubt you understood what you saw." Serial Phantasm's lip curled into a small smile. "Then again, seeing 'me', is not quite the same as seeing _me_. I guess you could say there is no me, but us, and I am a part of the us, which collectively are all parts of the origin."

Sirius laughed and shook his head. "Are you _purposefully_ trying to confuse them?"

Serial raised an eyebrow. "Is it working?"

"Wha- _who_ are you?" Lily asked, looking at the woman. She was beautiful, there was absolutely no doubt about that, and she was dressed in a fancy Victorian style dress. She had burgundy eyes and waist length silvery hair. Her features were like those of a porcelain doll, aristocratic, perfect. There was also something about her, Lily felt drained just being near her, and there was a distinctly unearthly feeling that made her skin prickle. She also took note of the plain, wooden spear that this 'Serial' was leaning against.

"Me? I am Serial Phantasm, I am Apathy." The capital letter on 'Apathy' could clearly be heard in her speech.

Sirius sighed. "Now you're being deliberately mysterious."

Serial shrugged. "It could be worse, imagine what Dream or Tyrant would do, or even worse, Shadow of the Heart?"

"Now, miss, could you tell me _how_ you were able to enter Hogwarts so easily?" Dumbledore asked, his voice having turned somewhat serious, and his wand now pointed at the woman. He did not know who she was, or even _what_ she was, but his impression of her was that of a void, drawing all things into it, draining them dry, and devouring them.

Serial gave Dumbledore an amused look. "How did I enter? Why, you let me in yourself, and it is beyond your ability to banish me. I do not recognise you as having any authority over me, so if you see me again, remember your place." Her words ended low and threatening, as she faded from view, disappearing who knew where. The notice-me-not charm she'd cast, which none of them had noticed until now, vanished with her.

"Sirius, who was that woman?" Dumbledore asked.

Sirius shrugged. "You heard her, she's Serial Phantasm. She is Apathy." He then nodded his head towards the Slytherin table. "Now, it might be a good idea to go stop Snape before he _really_ gets on Harry's shit list."

All of them looked towards said table to find Severus Snape almost spitting mad and screaming in Harry's face, while said boy only smiled coldly back. The two females on either side of him looked to be getting angrier and angrier, however, and the way the shadows seemed to be dancing in Harry's general area was incredibly disturbing.

xxxxx

Snape's face had become a purple to rival beetroot as he looked into Harry Potter's amused face. Granted, this wasn't the Harry Potter he was familiar with, and neither was it the James Potter he truly hated, but he seriously needed to vent, and this boy was just as good a target as any other.

Just as he was about to verbally lay into him again, he became aware of someone approaching quickly. No, not just _someone_, _the_ one, the only one that he loved, the one that he desired, the one whose death he had almost indirectly caused, the one who refused to be his.

"That's enough, Severus. Honestly, we didn't really plan things out properly. How is Harry supposed to have an appropriate uniform or supplies if he was summoned without them? I'll be taking him out to Diagon Alley right now, and we should be back by lunch, so he'll be fully prepared for tomorrow." Lily said. "Besides, it's a Saturday, there are no lessons today!"

Severus didn't know quite what to say to his once -and sadly, still, despite the gap between them – best friend, long time crush, and stalk victi- I mean, admirable woman. Instead, he just said nothing, as Lily Potter dragged her son's alternate and the two girls that had come with him up and out of the hall.

xxxxx

Harry followed Lily out of the Great Hall, taking the first good look at her since he'd entered this world. She was thirty-five, and like all witches and wizards, looked a little younger than she actually was. She had the appearance of someone in their late twenties, and rather attractive when compared to other humans.

Now, Harry was _not_ getting the hots for his mother, not even an alternate reality's version of her, it was simple fact. Besides, while he could acknowledge human beauty, he'd been kind of spoilt with all of the supernatural eye candy that he'd gotten on a daily basis since he was five.

Harry was more interested in her as a person than what she looked like, and began to examine her soul and magic. There was nervousness radiating off her, and deep sorrow as well, which was to be expected really. There was also curiosity and very slight hostility directed at Alt and V/V, though that might well be a 'mother' wanting to know the sorts of girls her 'son' spent time with.

Deciding to be a little mischievous, Harry pulled at the shadows around them when they were in the Entrance Hall. Lily stiffened as the four of them were suddenly engulfed in darkness, before her vision cleared to reveal Diagon Alley in front of her.

"That was weird." She muttered to herself.

"Useful though." Harry shrugged. "Feels a lot better than most wizarding methods of travelling too."

Lily nodded her agreement, she wasn't fond of portkeys, apparition, or the Floo system herself. She then took a look at her son, or at least the alternate to him, swallowed nervously, and headed towards Gringotts to withdraw some money from the Potter vault.

They walked in silence, an uncomfortable silence for Lily, though Harry and the two girls with him didn't seem bothered in the slightest. What should she say? She wanted to get to know this Harry, but she had no frame of reference to go off. From what Sirius had told them, both she and James had been killed on that Halloween night, with him falsely accused and imprisoned. If that was so, just who had raised Harry, and how did he grow up?

Thankfully, from Lily's point of view, the alley was pretty much empty that day. While it was a Saturday, it was early morning, and all of the kids had been sent to school the day before, so there really wasn't anyone about. She was especially thankful for this when they reached Gringotts itself.

Lily squeaked in surprise when the goblin guards crossed their weapons in front of them when they went to enter the bank. She looked at them, and was about to speak, when she saw that not one of the goblins was looking at her. Instead, they all seemed to be focused on Harry and the girls with him, and Lily was shocked to see the warrior race shifting nervously from foot to foot.

"Is there an issue here?" Harry asked in his musical voice, though there were undertones of both amusement and menace in it as well.

"What business does a god have with us, especially one that reeks of darkness?" Lily's eyes went wide at that, and looked towards Harry, expecting him to deny being any such thing. Instead, she saw his lips quirk upwards into a small smirk.

"So, you can tell that much of my nature just from what little I'm letting leak out. I was rather disappointed when not a single human noticed it, but your race is far more sensitive to those sorts of things, aren't you?" Harry chuckled. "As for why we're here, this reality's version of my mother wishes to withdraw funds. I'm sure you are aware of what was attempted in Hogwarts yesterday evening. I'm also fairly sure that news of my appearance will have reached you in short order."

"So you mean no harm to the Goblin Nation, do you?" One brave goblin asked.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I don't care about the Goblin Nation. If one of your race is fool enough to piss me off, then they'll suffer for it. Otherwise, I'm quite happy to leave you to your own devices. Is that good enough for you, or are things going to... escalate?"

Lily shivered as the air around Harry grew heavy with power, and he began to radiate malice in a way that began to claw at her mind, making her shiver in fear, and shrink in on herself out of a primal desire to remain unseen by this apex predator stood next to her.

The goblins swallowed heavily, and shook slightly in their armour. However, Harry's response seemed to garner some respect from them, and they withdrew their weapons that had been blocking their path, and even gave a shaky salute to Harry and his companions.

Lily gasped when the negative emotions coming from Harry suddenly ceased, and everything seemed to brighten once more, as if what had happened had never actually occurred. She took the lead in entering the bank, and approached one of the tellers, asking to be guided down to the vault for a withdrawal.

It wasn't until they were in the carts and on their way down to the vault that Lily felt confident enough to speak to Harry again, though she didn't know how to broach the topic, and decided to just be a Gryffindor and dive head first into it and hope for the best.

"H-Harry, what did the goblins back there mean about you being a 'dark god'?" She asked.

"It's technically what I am, or at least one part of what I am." Harry replied. "When I was thirteen, there was an... accident, and my soul was ripped into pieces. We managed to put me back together, though there was an 'extra part' that was added. In short, my soul was fused to that of a god, one of a dark alignment. Thankfully, my own personality managed to dominate the other one and subsume the other."

"I- I see." Lily sighed. "I guess... well, I guess that I shouldn't be too critical of you, as that... that would be rather hypocritical of me." Harry cocked his head to one side and raised an eyebrow above his blindfold. "You see, when we found out that Voldemort would be coming after you, I did some research into things that I... I wasn't supposed to. If Dumbledore knew what I was reading, or James, or Sirius, I don't know what they would say, they all _hate_ dark magic so much..."

"I sense a 'but' coming." Harry encouraged the woman on.

"Harry." She murmured. "He was more important to me than anything else at that point, and I would have done literally anything to keep him safe. I found a ritual, a sacrificial one, that would keep him safe from at least one killing curse, and I tied it into a reflective ward, which would hopefully turn the spell back on the caster. I never got to use it, but from what Sirius has told me about your world, I think that might be how you survived that night."

"Hmm, that would be logical." Harry nodded. "It's irrelevant now, aside from your willingness to delve into the dark arts. Aside from that time, have you ever looked into more dark magic?" Harry asked.

Lily swallowed heavily. "Y-Yes, I did. Bellatrix, Sirius' cousin, is a truly phenomenal witch, and someone that few are willing to face in a duel. She's very good at what she does, but what makes her really stand out from others is how she doesn't hesitate to use mild to moderate dark spells in a fight to cripple and maim. Honestly, I admire her a little. Both for that, and how she is her own woman, refusing the marriage contract with the Lestrange family, though how she dissolved the contract without losing her magic, I seriously wonder."

Harry chuckled again. "So it seems that you are not an ineffectual little scaredy cat. I must say, you are making quite a good impression on me. To be honest, I did not expect to have as high opinion of you as I do. In this vein, is there anything else in the magical world that you would like to study, regardless of public opinion on it?"

Lily managed a small smile. While it might not be how she had intended it, she was actually connecting to this alternate of her son, even if only slightly. While he was by no means a replacement for what she had lost, was there a reason she couldn't come to love him as a parent was? Could she be a parent to this 'dark god' who was apparently her son? Was she simply desperate to have something fill in the gap her Harry had left? Was she latching onto this boy as a lifeline, a way to remember without the pain attached to it?

"Well, when I first heard about Magi, I was curious. I mean, every book that mentions them makes them out to be horrible monsters who would do anything in the name of research, like some sort of demonic Ravenclaw students. I've never met a magus, so I can't really say what is true and what is not." Lily admitted.

Harry chuckled. "Well, the books aren't _too_ far off if that's what they say. I will admit, there are a lot of unscrupulous magi out there, who would do almost anything to further their research, things that you might say would make even a devil cringe. However, there are other magi out there who genuinely want to do good with their mysteries, or are mostly ambivalent to others."

Harry paused and clicked his tongue, idly wondering how long it would take to reach the vault. "A magus walks with death. That is the first lesson any magus really needs to learn. What they practise is dangerous. Their own spells, if they go wrong, might kill them. The politics of Magi might end with them dead or worse. There are creatures out there that will kill them if given half a chance. Heck, even Gaia might kill them in the right circumstances."

"You sound like you're familiar with Magi." Lily commented.

Harry snorted. "Yeah, you could say that. Anyway, after that important little lesson, I guess I can tell you about elements and origins. After that, perhaps the most basic of Magecraft, Reinforcement and Structural Grasping. Right, so the first thing to know about the elements is that there are five 'standard' ones, which are Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and Ether..."

Lily listened intently as Harry, in the space of fifteen minutes, taught her more about Magi than she had ever heard in her entire life so far.

xxxxx

When they were back on the surface, Lily had a rather thoughtful look on her face. What Harry had told her, for the most part, contradicted everything she'd ever heard about Magi before. Oh, true, there were some that were as depraved as the stories made them out to be. However, judging everyone by the minority, was like comparing every witch and wizard in the world to Voldemort.

"Well, getting your uniforms first is probably the best idea. We can pick them up later once they've got your measurements and pinned them up." So saying, Lily headed towards Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions.

Once inside, Harry, Altrouge, and V/V were soon all put up on stools to be measured for robes. For Harry and Altrouge, this wasn't much of an issue, aside from Harry's long hair getting in the way a little, but V/V was another matter.

"Excuse me, miss, but can you cancel whatever transfiguration you have that put these wings here." The assistant who was trying to put a robe on V/V asked. "They are very nice and pretty and all, but they're not very practical, and they're getting in the way of putting a robe on you."

"Ah, they're not a transfiguration." V/V told her. "They've been a part of me ever since my main body was killed. Even then, my primary body had something that closely resembled them."

"Primary body?" Lily blinked. "What do you mean by that?" Some time during the conversation she'd had with Harry about Magi, she'd forgotten that she'd wanted to get to know the two girls who had sort of claimed Harry as 'theirs', as well as a 'few others'.

"That's right, I never fully introduced myself fully, did I?" V/V realised, and then in all of her – in Harry's opinion, rather cute – innocence, she introduced herself. "I am False Angel V/V, an Aristotle. However, you would probably recognise me better under the title of TYPE Venus." She gave a little curtsey as she said this.

Lily, as well as the two attendants and Madam Malkin herself, froze at that statement. After a moment, Madam Malkin laughed it off, along with her assistants. Something like that just didn't happen, it was ridiculous to even think that. The attendant sorting out V/V's robe decided to humour her and play along, putting in the extra effort necessary to alter the robe to allow her wings to remain as they were.

Lily, however, remembered exactly what the goblins had called Harry, and what he had confirmed to her. If Harry was a 'dark god', then could that girl _really_ be a TYPE? It sounded ridiculous, completely insane, but she wasn't about to simply dismiss it out of hand. If it was true, then what did that actually say about the company Harry kept?

Perhaps she should ask him about that 'Serial Phantasm' woman.

Anyway, regardless of what sort of company Harry kept, it didn't take too long to get their measurements for their robes done. Like has been said, V/V's took the longest and were the most difficult, but once that hurdle was overcome, things were done fairly quickly.

Flourish and Blotts' was a bit of a hassle as well. The Harry that had died had, apparently, taken Care of Magical Creatures and Divination as his electives. The former because he'd become quite good friends with Hagrid, and the half-giant had already introduced him to some of the more 'interesting' creatures around Hogwarts. The latter because he knew that there had been some sort of prophecy about himself, though he didn't know the words of it, and had thus gained quite an interest in Divination, specifically tarot cards.

Harry decided he'd keep the Divination elective, it was one he hadn't actually taken back in his original world, as well as Care of Magical Creatures. If nothing else, it would prove quite fun when Hagrid introduced them to the wonderful little nightmare fuel creatures that Harry loved so dearly. Also, he was wondering if it would be amusing to bring Primate Murder to class.

While that might sound like a bad idea initially, Primate Murder would listen and obey three 'individuals'. One was Gaia, her creator, another was Altrouge, who she spent most of her time with, and the third was Harry, who took her for walks and played with her like a puppy when he was younger.

Harry was pretty certain he could keep Primy from slaughtering the students, and his decision was in no way influenced that Zelretch had phoned him to let him know that the Beast of Gaia was whining pathetically without its mistress nearby, honest!

After Flourish and Blotts', they headed off to get potion ingredients, as well as parchment, quills, and ink. Or at least they were, until Harry insisted they get paper and fountain pens. He really didn't like having masses of loose parchment in his bag, it irritated him to no end.

Of course, Harry did slip away at one point. Splitting himself into Origin and Serial Phantasm, then throwing a powerful illusion over her to make her look and sound like himself. He then slipped down Knockturn Alley, searching out any books that weren't in his – seriously getting rather large, and beginning to rival libraries found in legend – home library at his house in Fuyuki.

The last stop on their little shopping trip in Diagon Alley was going to be Ollivander's wand shop, it seemed. V/V and Altrouge had used the excuse of 'not having their wands on them' when they'd been summoned. Lily, it seemed, was not quite sure whether to believe that or not, but regardless, Dumbledore had apparently asked to get Harry's wand checked out, as 'they didn't know whether temporal magics may have had an odd effect on it'.

Harry just thought Dumbledore wanted to find out more about his wand, as it was obviously not the holly and phoenix feather wand the local Harry had used.

Well, whatever the reason, Harry found himself heading towards the rather dilapidated looking wand shop once again, the alternate of one he'd been to a fair few times before in his own world. He wondered how this time would go.


	4. Evening Arrives

AN: Next chapter is here, and I find that this story is going a lot slower than I expected. Heck, it's only at the end of this chapter that twenty-four hours have actually passed. It makes me wonder just how long this story is going to be. Obviously, I'm not going to spend too long on it, as it _is_ only supposed to be a short piece, so it'll be maybe twenty chapters I'm thinking? Anyway, I have a question for my readers, it's in regards to Harry's Saber Servant. There's been some discussion about this in the forum, and the popular option seems to be a female Lucifer, based off the one from Shin Megami Tensei, but utilising some of the Highschool DxD world as background. Both myself and Black Bullet of Seven have done omakes with this 'Servant', and I'd like to know what your opinions on her are? The other primary options for a Servant are Youmu Konpaku from Touhou, and Sarah Kerrigan from Starcraft. Other ideas are, of course, welcome. Oh, two more things! One, the poll for the next 'verse' is still open on my profile. Right now, Percy Jackson is in first place with 123 votes, 3 ahead of Campione. Second, someone in a review last chapter asked how wizards could know about TYPEs. Well, TYPEs are planet-wide threats, and _everyone_ in the know about the supernatural knows about them. Just because they're a part of the nasu-verse doesn't mean wizards would be clueless about them in a cross-over world.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 04 – Evening Arrives

The group entered the small shop, and Harry found a small smile crawling across his face. While to an ordinary person the shop would appear small, dusty, and a little creepy, it was different for someone who could literally _feel_ the different magical melodies dancing through the air.

Being magically sensitive was almost a prerequisite of being a wandmaker. After all, a core and the wood it was sealed inside needed to be in harmony to work properly, and there were rather major differences even between components gathered from a single source. If three tail hairs from a unicorn were gathered, and one of them was a match for mahogany wood, that didn't mean the other two hairs, or even the entire original hair, would also be a match for mahogany. Heck, it might be a match for mahogany still, yet not that particular piece of it.

"Oh my!" Lily jumped in surprise when Ollivander did his 'appearing suddenly and scaring people' thing, but she was the only one to do so. "I must say, you three are probably the most unique individuals to have ever entered my little shop, and definitely the most unique since I took over from my father."

"Understandable." Harry replied.

"Now, may I ask what you require of me? All of you are too old to be looking for your first wand." Ollivander raised an eyebrow in question.

Lily was the one who answered. "Well, Harry here was summoned from another world the other day, and we want to know whether his wand was affected at all, what with it being a wizard's most important tool." At this Ollivander's eyes crinkled in amusement, having already realised that Harry would have other things to rely on if his wand failed him. "His two companions didn't have their wands on them when they were all summoned, so they need to acquire new ones."

"Well, I can't really think of any reason that a summoning would affect a wand, but I have no reason to decline looking it over, just in case." Ollivander's tone of voice conveyed his opinion very clearly. He, as a wandmaker, knew that a wand could tell you a lot about a person, and it was rather obvious that people were trying to understand Harry's character.

Harry's lip twitched upwards in amusement. He had no issue with Ollivander looking over his wand. True, he wasn't shouting from the rooftops everything about himself, but he had no intentions of hiding either. If someone asked him if he was a Dead Apostle, he would answer in the affirmative, but if they didn't, he wouldn't bother enlightening them. Oh, there were some questions he would avoid answering, or at least answer evasively. He did derive a fair amount of amusement out of frustrating people after all, and being mysterious was fun in its own way.

Shadows gathered over Harry's palm, and when they dispersed, his wand was revealed in his hand. He handed it over to Ollivander, who seemed rather interested in it, his eyes widening slightly when he first caught sight of the rather unusual wand.

"Interesting, _very_ interesting." The wandmaker muttered to himself as he ran his long, thin fingers up and down the wand. "Considering the company you are in, perhaps I should not have been so surprised, but nevertheless I am. A very powerful wand this is, and in capable hands too."

"Excuse me, Mr. Ollivander, but could you tell me what's so interesting about Harry's wand?" Lily asked. "I remember you saying his Holly and Phoenix feather wand was 'curious' when we bought it, so does this wand share a similar... connection to that one?"

Ollivander chuckled. "Not at all, this wand is _completely_ different to that one, and it is something I never would have ever imagined being crafted, but that is purely down to what this wand is made of, its component parts. Yes, a very interesting wand indeed."

"What is it made of?" Lily wondered aloud, and Harry was amused to see that, rather than being an invasive question, this alternate of hi_s_ birth mother , was simply intensely curious about, well, everything.

"Well, the wood itself is from the Forest of Einnashe." Ollivander saw Lily's confusion, so he elaborated. "The Disembowelling Sea of Trees, the seventh Dead Apostle Ancestor. It is a living vampiric forest that randomly appears every fifty years, devours all those that enter it, and then disappears for another five decades."

"Oh, you never mentioned that one when you were telling me about the Ancestors." Lily said to Harry, who shrugged.

"That's because it's dead in my world. It was killed several years ago, though the exact details of what happened are unknown. Supposedly, it was the 'Mystic Eyes of Death Perception' that led to its death, but seeing as the only known possessor of those eyes was nowhere near it when the forest manifested, it's somewhat debatable whether that's the truth of the matter." Harry blandly replied.

"Interesting." Ollivander muttered again, before returning to Harry's wand. "Now, this wand actually has five other parts to it, aside from the wood it was crafted from. It contains four hairs from four separate individuals, all soaked in the blood of another."

"Blood?" Lily asked. "Is that really a valid wand core?"

Ollivander nodded. "Yes, it is. Actually, it is a very good wand core. However, most people are rather... leery of using such a substance, despite the magical potential. Actually, there's a law against wandmakers collecting blood to be used in wands, so I'm guessing the blood was provided by Mr. Potter, along with every other component of this wand."

Harry nodded in reply. "All of the parts of the wand were given to me, so I gave them to the Ollivander in my world to craft a wand with."

Ollivander chuckled. "Normally, I'd ask where you managed to acquire succubus blood, but that is probably the most mundane and common material used in this wand, especially so since it's being used as an enhancer for even more potent parts."

"Now, on to the four hairs in the wand." Ollivander moved things along, obviously wanting to talk about what else his wand held. "The four hairs in this wand are from three separate species, two of them being divine in origin, and the other two being vampiric."

"Divine? Vampiric? Wait, I thought you said _three_ different species?" Lily was just bursting with questions she wanted to ask.

"Yes, I did say three, didn't I?" Ollivander smiled at Lily, who was acting like an eager schoolgirl. It was actually rather cute, what with the way her eyes sparkled with interest and how she was so focused on the bit of wood in the old man's hand.

"Well, the two divine hairs, if my identification charms are correct, came from Stheno and Euryale, two of the three legendary Gorgon sisters. The two vampiric hairs, however, came from the Brunestud sisters: Altrouge, the ninth Dead Apostle Ancestor, and Arcueid, last remaining True Ancestor." Ollivander regarded Harry closely, before his eyes flickered over to Alt next to him for a moment.

"That's certainly... something." Lily said slowly, and in a somewhat unsure tone. "How would you even get your hands on materials like that? I can't imagine that such people would just give up something like that, not to just anyone at any rate, and those components aren't the sort of thing you can find just lying around."

Ollivander's eyes once more flickered to Alt stood at Harry's side. "Oh, I believe acquiring them was easier for him than you might expect it to be." There was an undertone of amusement in the wandmaker's voice. "Now, I believe I have two beautiful ladies to find wands for, do I not?"

Altrouge stepped forward. "I'll go first, and please, call me Alt, that's the nickname Harry has for me." Her eyes glittered in amusement, though they remained unseen behind the sunglasses she still had on. Harry was contemplating giving her some coloured contacts so that, when she inevitably removed those shades in public, people wouldn't instantly go 'vampire!' at the sight of her, but he hadn't actually made then yet.

"Very well, step forward, and let's see what sort of wand is right for you." Ollivander agreed. Almost immediately, he handed a wand to the Dead Apostle Ancestor, and Harry was rather amused at how easily the old wandmaker was taking the situation.

Harry's vision shifted until he was viewing the magic inside of Alt and the lingering magic in the wand core interact. It was rather curious that the materials were reacting better to Alt here than the wands he had tried himself when he had first came to Ollivanders in his birth world. Perhaps it had something to do with this being a border world, but gaps and differences between the two different magic systems seem to have been... 'fixed' somewhat.

"Dragon heartstring seems to be working best." Harry muttered to himself, though Lily and Ollivander both heard him, as of course did Alt and V/V. "Yew seems to be the right wood as well. I have no idea about focus length though, I'm not good enough to identify that."

"Correct." Ollivander had a gleam in his eye when he observed Harry now. "I take it that you have some skill in wand-crafting then? It is not just anyone that bothers learning about the intricacies of this craft, and rare are the ones with an aptitude for it."

Harry shrugged, and with a gesture, he summoned Prismakreuz into his hand. "I read, absorb, and learn everything I can, regardless of topic or subject. The only times I've ever really used what I know about wand-crafting is in the creation of various... focuses for my magic."

Ollivander held a hand out for Prismakreuz, after looking to Harry for permission, and then let his fingers run up and down the shaft of the staff, before examining the headpiece. A ring of mithril, with a cross in the centre, three of the points reaching past the outside edge of the ring and being viciously sharp and pointy, just like the outside edge of the ring is incredibly sharp. At the centre of the cross is a jewel that glitters in the light, refracting both light and prana around inside itself.

"Interesting." Ollivander murmured. "I had wondered why your wand shows such little use, and I guess this is the reason. While not quite as efficient as a wand, this staff would be capable of handling a _far_ greater flow of magic, an immense amount of it actually. Judging by the style, this was designed as a weapon, rather than a tool, like a wand is, and that says quite a lot about you on its own."

Ollivander looked over Prismakreuz for a while longer, before returning it to Harry and getting back to Alt's wand. "As Mr. Potter said yew and dragon heartstring seems to be the best materials for a wand, out of those I posess at least, and I can add myself that your optimum focus length seems to be around nine and a half inches. I have a few wands that could be the one, so let's try them out, shall we?"

It took five more attempts before Altrouge found a wand that accepted her, letting out a shower of red and black sparks. Alt gave her thanks for the wand, before tucking it out of sight into her pocket. She'd practise with it later, and see if the knowledge transfer Harry had given her and V/V was working as it should.

Of course, the only one left to get a wand was the Aristotle amongst them, TYPE Venus herself. Ollivander seemed to regard her very closely for a short while, and Harry could easily pick up on the intense curiosity emanating from his soul. He didn't know what she was, it seemed, but he could easily tell what she wasn't.

"Hmm, I believe it may be best to start off with my more unusual ones in this case, as I very well doubt a regular wand would work for you." Ollivander remarked, before hurrying off amongst the shelves of wands, retrieving a box here and there, making a small stack of them, before returning.

"Try this one first, the wood is from a whomping willow, and I actually have no idea what the core is, it's something that was left behind by my father and wasn't labelled. Let's see how that react to you, before we move onto something else." V/V looked at the wand for a moment, before shrugging, and waving it about.

The wand came alive in V/V's hand, growing leaves and branches, becoming a miniature tree. Of course, unlike a regular tree, it seemed to grow long, spindly legs, and three mouths filled with vicious teeth that snarled at everyone. Suffice to say, she dropped it.

Everyone watched in silence as the 'wand' scuttled along the floor, disappearing behind the end of a shelf, the noises it made quickly fading away.

"I think that wand might not be for you." Ollivander delicately remarked. "I'll retrieve it later, but for now, let's move on."

With that, the wandmaker handed her a different wand. This one reacted almost as spectacularly as the previous one, twisting and changing into something that could possibly be classified as 'alive'. It was rather amusing to see how the one after that reacted as well, and the ones that followed, all of them following a similar pattern.

Ollivander eventually decided to use more 'inanimate' materials for V/V's wand, digging out magically conductive materials that weren't organic in nature. Harry had to lend a hand at one point, providing materials for the wand, which it seemed, would have to be constructed for her.

In the end, Ollivander and Harry agreed that a wand crafted of mithril with a core of crushed ruby and topaz dust would work for V/V, and not come alive when she tried to use it. Thankfully, Harry managed to summon the required materials through the shadows, and it would take no more than three hours for the wand to be crafted for her.

"So," Lily began, once Ollivander had disappeared into the back of his shop. "Just how much stuff can you summon with those shadows of yours?" She asked.

Harry shrugged. "Whatever has been stored in my Imaginary Space. I know there's a massive stockpile of apples in there under preservation charms, some designs for stuff I'm creating, jewels, mithril bars, and other raw materials, and I think there's some weapons in there too, in addition to my bike and other stuff."

"Your bike?" Lily asked curiously, thinking Harry meant 'bicycle'.

Shadows coalesced beside Harry, before fading away to reveal his 'bike', or other words, his 'motorcycle', Harry having decided to 'show instead of tell', and wondering exactly what this version of his birth mother would make of his creation.

Lily, for her part, was shocked into silence. The motorcycle that Sirius rode was a monster, large enough for even Hagrid to ride, but Harry's made that look small by comparison. It was a gleaming silver colour with black, green, and purple designs down the sides, runes. The seat on the bike was long, but that was more likely because rather than sitting upright on the bike, the rider would almost be laid along its length.

"Wh-What sort of bike is this?" Lily stuttered. "I've never seen anything like it before."

Harry chuckled. "You wouldn't have, I made this thing from scratch myself. By hand-crafting every part myself, it gets around that pesky law about enchanting muggle objects, especially seeing as this is run purely off magic, and it has numerous charms built into it for safety and comfort.

"Safety, you say?" Lily wondered just what about this beast of a machine was 'safe'. "And what's its top speed and acceleration anyway?"

"Erm... I don't actually know what the top speed is." Harry coughed. "I've had it going at around three times the speed of sound once, and it was still gaining speed then. As for acceleration, it can go from zero to Mach one in one point eight seconds if you absolutely gun it to the maximum level."

Lily's eye began twitching as she looked at the alternate of her son- no, a little speed demon with an amused smile on his face. "Tell me _again_, what about this is 'safe'?"

"Well, like most things I make, it's locked onto my magical signature, so no one else can use it and injure themselves, and my reactions are _better_ than the bikes. There's a collision avoidance system built into the bike using a combination of wards, charms, and enchanting so unless you're actually aiming to crash, you won't. When started, the area around where the rider goes gets warded to high heaven in case of accidents, and can withstand great impacts without damage." Harry replied.

"Have you had it checked over?" Lily asked him.

"It's been looked over by a Charm's master, a Runes master, and a qualified Arithmancer." Harry told her, not mentioning that it was him who possessed those masteries, or that he also had masteries in every subject Hogwarts taught aside from Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. He had a NEWT in the latter, and hadn't been overly fussed with the former. Oh, and he had no official high level qualification for Muggle Studies either, but he thought he was fine in regards to 'normal' humans, despite not even being a member of the species any longer.

Lily sighed. "At least professionals have made sure it's okay." She rubbed at her forehead, where she could already feel a headache developing. She then frowned. "Wait, you built this from the ground up? Wouldn't that take knowledge of physics, or at least engineering?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "I did keep up with the muggle world, and education within it." Again, he made no mention of the fact that his knowledge was on the level of a University graduate in most areas, and in certain areas even exceeded that. Hey, there was a reason he was called the _Infinite_ Archive after all, though he had heard rumours of yet another name coming out for himself, the Eternal Librarian.

Lily didn't bother giving voice to the fact that a typical fifteen year old, magical or muggle, would not have the knowledge needed to create a motorcycle from nothing, not even parts. It seemed that her son was scarily intelligent, or perhaps simply ambitious to believe that he could pull off the ideas he had in his head.

Was that the reason he'd been sorted into Slytherin?

"Is there anything else you need to do in London while we are here?" Lily asked. "Seeing as we're here anyway, it'd be best to get it done now, before we have to head back to Hogwarts." She was honestly rather curious herself, what sorts of places would Harry visit?

"Hmm, I don't know." Harry clicked his tongue. "There's nowhere I desperately need to be, but I was thinking of dropping past the Clock Tower, though I don't know how good an idea that is. No offence, but with your current outfit, you just scream 'witch', and from what you said earlier, it seems the two groups do not get along too well."

"Perhaps another time then?" Lily shrugged her shoulders. "Now, shall we wander around for a while? It will take some time for the wand and robes to be finished, and I would dearly love to get to know you better, along with your two... female companions."

Both V/V and Altrouge felt a shiver run down their spines at that. It didn't matter how old or powerful you were, no one could ignore the 'mother-in-law' effect, especially when she wants to know if you are suitable for their precious children.

xxxxx

When they eventually got back to Hogwarts, Lily was scrutinising V/V and Alt closely. The former had been completely blunt in telling her what she was, and Lily was seriously beginning to believe that the angel-looking girl really _was_ TYPE Venus, the answers she was getting all pointed towards it, though there was some confusion, especially when the 'Land of Steel' came up.

Alt on the other hand, well, Lily wasn't entirely sure about her. She was fairly certain the girl was not human, and fairly old as well. At one point, Lily noticed she mentioned Middle Ages of the fifteenth century, and she spoke like she had been there herself, and obviously the only humans who'd lived that long were Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, and the girl was neither.

So what sort of beings could live that long? Well, there was undoubtedly a number of spirits of one form or another that could exist for centuries, easily at that, and then there were Gods, though they were all gone now. Hmm, the only 'race' that she could think of, aside from the previously mentioned, that lived that long were the vampires.

Harry had rattled off their names and rank earlier, those like Primate Murder, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, Sumire, Strout Svelten, Altrou-

Lily almost tripped over herself as she thought of the ninth Dead Apostle Ancestor's name. Alt could quite easily be a shortened version of Altrouge Brunestud. The primary means of distinguishing a vampire from a human was the red eyes, and 'Alt' wore shades everywhere.

Could it be?

Could Harry really be that _close_ to a Dead Apostle Ancestor? She recalled Ollivander telling them what the components of Harry's wand were... and how he had said that 'acquiring them might be easier than she believed it to be'. If Harry truly _was_ as close to Altrouge Brunestud as she thought he was, then was it really that far-fetched that she'd let him use one of her hairs as a part of his wand?

Lily almost walked into Harry's back when he stopped suddenly. This action allowed her to regain control of her thoughts that had been running a mile a minute. Following the tilt of his head and where his blindfold was aimed – as she couldn't see his eyes because of it – she looked to see whatever had caught his attention.

Lily didn't see anything particularly special herself. There were a few students wandering up and down the central staircase, and that was it, aside from one girl who was sitting on the banister and looking at them with an expression filled with mischief.

Harry began to laugh.

It was an odd sound, and describing it was difficult. His light, musical voice was magnified several times over in the merriment, as if flowers were blossoming and the local wildlife was singing along with him, as if he was some sort of Disney princess. However, there was some indefinable part of it, one that couldn't be heard yet was still a part of the sound, that resonated with raw emotion; lust, love, hate, anger, rage, passion, joy, regret, mirth, excitement, aggression, pleasure, frustration, and everything else.

It was a decidedly odd, but by no means unpleasant sound, even if it caused a shiver to run down Lily's spine when she heard it, like it was something not meant to be heard by mortal ears. It was a most beautiful melody, but also a truly terrifying one, like what one would expect of the fair folk.

Lily froze in place as she saw the girl Harry was looking at jump off the banister she'd been sat on. Her wand was halfway into her hand and an 'Arresto Momentum' spell on her lips when she saw the girl had already landed lightly on the balls of her feet and was walking towards them.

That... that was... what had just happened? The girl walking towards them had just jumped down from a banister on the _third floor, _and she walked away from it just like that! What the bloody heck is going on, and why does she have the feeling that this has _also_ got something to do with her dimensionally-kidnapped alternate son?

She took a closer look at the girl walking towards them. She was Asian, her features sharp and slanted, as well as pale of skin. Her eyes seemed to be... golden? Yes, her eyes did appear to be the same colour as molten gold. Her hair was somewhere between a rusty red and dark pink, and she walked with the bearing of royalty, an unconscious grace that would put kings and queens to shame.

"What a surprise to see you here, Amat-" Harry began to speak, but was stopped by the girl putting a finger to his lips.

"My name is Amy, Amy Kami." The girl, 'Amy' apparently, interrupted Harry.

Harry snorted. "How original, _no one_ will suspect that."

'Amy' flicked Harry's forehead. "Shush, it's not as easy to maintain this puppet across worlds as I thought it would be, it's taking some getting used to. Is it my fault that mortals are to blinded by ignorance to see what's right under their nose? Even if they did suspect something, their arrogance wouldn't lead them to the correct conclusion. If nothing else has changed about humans, it's that."

With that, Amy wandered into the Great Hall. Before she went through the doors however, she shouted back to Harry over her shoulder. "I stand by what I said before, you really should take a peek at Cally on Ogygia, goodness knows that girl needs to stop being such a hermit."

"Harry, who was that?" Lily asked. "_What_ was that girl?"

Harry looked at the red-haired woman and a small smirk worked its way onto his face. "She's someone I know, and would you believe me if I told you she was a goddess?" He chuckled. "Oh, I already know Dumbledore was behind getting my wand checked out, so don't feel like you have to hide anything for me, let's see how he deals with certain... nuggets of information."

With that, Harry also disappeared into the Great Hall, leaving Lily a little confused and worried about what Harry had just said. She _knew_ that Dumbledore didn't tell everyone everything, that was blatantly obvious, but if Harry was withholding information himself, wouldn't that mean this conflict is just going to drag on?

Oh, she _hated_ the fact that they'd been forced to summon him, essentially to fight their war for them, but still... there was that traitorous part of her mind that said, with Harry here, the 'war' could be over before it even began. Dumbledore was the Leader of the Light, and if Harry was being deliberately unhelpful and not telling him things, did that not mean Harry was indirectly a cause of further suffering, pain, and Death?

xxxxx

Harry wandered through the school library. His eyes rapidly flickered over the spines of some of the books, reading their titles. He was searching for books that hadn't existed in either of the worlds he was already familiar with, and while there was a lot that were identical to their counterparts, there was the occasional one that was different.

Whenever he found one of these different books, he created a duplicate to place in his own Library back home. He would also use a quick flash of Structural Analysis to immediately understand the contents of the book as if he'd read it page to page. Granted, that might count as cheating, but Harry wasn't reading for entertainment here, but to expand his already ridiculous knowledge-base.

He wasn't known as the 'Infinite Archive' for nothing after all.

"H-Harry?" A female voice came from the end of the row.

Harry tilted his head to see who had just come around the corner and into the same aisle as him. "Oh, hello, Granger." He greeted the girl neutrally, before returning to scanning through the books on the shelves in front of him. Right then he was in a section devoted to an obscure aspect of Arithmancy and its applications in potions and alchemy.

"Granger?... Not Hermione?" The bushy-haired girl asked.

"Worlds are different, Granger. What is true here _will_ be false in other worlds, therefore it should not be a surprise that _a_ Harry Potter does not have the same level of relationship as the one native to this reality did with you. In some worlds, you're a Dark Lady far worse than Voldemort, and Harry Potter kills you. In others, you could well be a male in a submissive-dominant relationship with a female Harry Potter." Harry told her, not really paying much attention to the examples he was using, merely diving into the Kaleidoscope and pulling out two worlds at random.

A squeak from the girl drew his attention. Looking back at her, he saw that her face was incredibly red for some reason. He mentally rewound for a moment, before snorting as he realised it had been his words that had elicited that reaction. He shook is head and once more returned to looking for new books.

"S-So you _didn't_ get along with your world's version of me?" Granger asked once she had stopped her cheeks from burning red hot, even if they were still decidedly pink.

"For a while I did. However, she did not know the meaning of personal space or invasive questioning." He chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "Or she simply rubbed me the wrong way and I over-reacted, that's also a possibility. Regardless of the actual reason for it, our friendship... collapsed in third year."

Hermione sighed. "So it was just you and Ron then." She muttered, inaudible if it wasn't for Harry's incredibly sharp hearing.

Harry shook his head. "I have never been friends with Ronald Weasley. As individuals, we are simply too different to mesh at all. While I wouldn't say that the redhead was a 'monster' with no redeeming qualities, he was also not the most pleasant of company, and there was definite friction between us that prevented any sort of positive relationship forming." Harry's lips twitched upwards at the word monster, that was a description he would apply elsewhere, to others.

"So... do you mind me asking who your friends were?" Hermione asked, and Harry was a little curious about just how timid she was being. Even the Hermione in his world, the one who he'd separated himself from, had a rather forceful personality, even when she was not the happiest she's ever been.

"Amongst the students, I suppose you could say Alicia Spinnet was perhaps my closest friend. I got along well enough with everyone when necessary, certain individuals aside, but... I never really connected with any of them. Most of my friends and acquaintances were made outside of Hogwarts, and with... rather unusual individuals." Harry replied.

Harry grinned slightly as he felt Hermione's soul spike with curiosity. "Are... Alt and V/V not Hogwarts students?" It was amusing how she stumbled over those two names, like she realised they were nicknames but had no clue what their full name could be.

"They'll stick with me while I'm here, though they weren't originally students of this school." There, that would lead her to believe that they were enrolled in a foreign magical school, rather than this being the first time either had been in formal education.

Harry titled his head to the side and glanced out the window. Reaching out, he could feel V/V's soul in the owlery, the souls of multiple owls surrounding her, the Aristotle's soul radiating cheerfulness and the birds' curiousity. Alt's soul he found in the Forbidden Forest, rather close to where Elestia's clearing was in the other world, yet he felt no equivalent to the forest spirit at all.

Come to think of it, he could feel no equivalent to Holly here either. He could feel Holly herself, who it seemed was investigating the central ward stone of this Hogwarts, both Lens with her – and he really needed to think up a name for the 'White Len' that he could use to address her by – but there was no 'Lady Hogwarts' in this world.

"..." Hermione was quiet for a while and fidgeted, unsure what to say or do. This Harry wasn't being open and friendly with her like the Harry she knew... yet he wasn't pushing her away, insulting her, or anything like that, even though he'd said that he and her alternate no longer got along.

"Were you here looking for a particular book?" Harry eventually decided to break the silence.

"Ah, well, not exactly." Hermione nervously shifted from foot to foot. "At the end of last year, I asked professor Vector whether it was possible to make a sort of production line that would make potions more quickly than a brewer would by themselves, but she said that the one making the potion needed to have a certain amount of magic in their body, and sh-"

Hermione stopped what she was saying as she found three books in front of her, held in the air by some of Harry's long purple hair supporting them. She blinked and took another look at them. Those weren't Library books, they didn't have the colour-coded mark on the spine that labelled them as such.

"Wha- Are these yours?" Hermione asked.

Harry hummed an acknowledgement without turning to face her. "Yes, they are. They do, however, hold the answers to your questions about a magical production line. Put simply, yes it is possible, but the automated brewing devices would have to both be infused with magic and channel it at the same time. If you want to know more, just read these books, I'm not going to spoon feed you all the answers."

"Th-Thank you." Hermione took the books off him, looking at them great interest, before hurrying off with the three tomes. Before she was completely out of earshot, however, she managed to call back, probably louder than she had intended in the library. "I'll get them back to you just as soon as I've read them, and thank you again!"

"Hmm, I wonder what it was she actually wanted?" Tamamo wondered, materialising next to Harry. "It was fairly obvious that she didn't come upon you by chance, but none of her questions were really invasive enough to be an interrogation, so what was her purpose here?"

"I'm thinking that she was put up to it." Illya put her thoughts forwards, also materialising. "Remember, there was a purpose behind them 'summoning' Harry to this world. Obviously, if they're going to go to the trouble of actually bringing you here, they will want to manipulate you into doing what it is they want you to do, and it is so much easier to control someone when you know what makes them tick."

"That's going to lead them nowhere." Harry sighed. "While the people here wear the same faces and names as those in my world, their personalities are not identical, even if some are exceptionally close to their counterpart's. Even then, there are none here that I'm particularly attached to, aside you girls of course, and if they think to catch you lot in their webs of machinations, then I will personally slaughter them."

"Lily." Jack said, also materialising.

Understanding what she was asking, Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Lily Potter has made a favourable impression on me. That, however, is not enough to make me want to fight for the cause she believes in. While she is not the sheep I expected, she is most definitely not the wolf this world needs."

"So what are you going to do here? I know you made a deal with Fate to sort this world out, though you can't act until the time-line has settled to avoid irreparable damage, so you must have made _some_ sort of plan, some ideas that you want to expand upon." Tamamo glanced at the book Harry was flicking through over his shoulder.

"I'm going to relax. Screw lessons, I already know the syllabus perfectly. I could, if I so desired, _teach_ at this school with my level of knowledge. I will attend Care and Divination though, the former because I like meeting interesting creatures and the latter out of minor curiosity, but for the most part I intend to continue on with some of my own projects." Harry told her, shrugging his shoulders.

Illya snorted. "I saw some of your designs before, wasn't one of them the creation of a giant, piloted mech? You know, the sort of thing you find in anime? Of course, knowing you, there'll be a fully functioning one standing out in the grounds by the end of next week."

Harry shrugged, a slight grey tint coming to his cheeks as he blushed lightly. "I've pretty much got all that planned out. I'm creating a Neural Interface System based primarily off Etherlite, while the power source, I'm thinking, could well be some form of Mana Crystal, probably one tied to lightning or fire. Weapon Systems are actually really simple, or at least _conventional_ weapon systems are, I think I'll add in some of my own designs. Hehehe, hahaha- ouch!" Harry rubbed the back of his head and glared at Illya, who had smacked him over the head with the flat of one of her blades.

"No mad laughter for you!" Illya wiggled the sword in front of him like one would wag a finger at a naughty child. "Bad Harry. Creating weapons of mass destruction is fine, but remember to build safety features into them, okay?"

Harry looked at the white-haired girl incredulously. "Illya, I possess enough raw power to literally tear planets into pieces, I _am_ a weapon of mass destruction all by myself, making a giant mecha robot is not really going to increase my destructive potential, merely what options I have available." He shook his head. "It's not like it's even the first robot I've built either, remember that Prismarad, my bike, is a transformer now."

"Oh yes, however could we forget that?" Illya rolled her eyes. "Honestly, are you sure you're not a mad scientist at heart? A magical, vampire, god, aspect-y mad scientist of-... You know what, when you step back and take a look at things, you're really fucked up, aren't you?"

Harry laughed. "I guess I am. Still, does any of that really matter? I am happy as I am, and I'm not intentionally harming anyone else, so why can I not be what I want to be? Choices, Actions, Reactions, Consequences, Decisions, Options, they are what define us, so I begrudge none the right to choose what they will, for I will also make the choices _I_ decide to make, and always for my own reasons."

Tamamo rolled her eyes as she latched onto Harry's arm. "So philosophical of you." She needled, before frowning. "I've been meaning to ask this, but what are we going to be doing on a day to day basis? You said you're going to work on your own projects, and you're pretty much skipping all of your classes, so why did you allow yourself to get sorted into a house? We all know that you could have fully prevented the hat from accessing your mind, thus it not being able to sort you, and you have the patience to outlast that tatty bit of fabric, so... what?"

"Easy access." Harry answered. "Most of Voldie's supporters have family in Slytherin. I promised Fate I'd sort this world out, and so help me, I'm going to do it properly. Don't be surprised if in the next few weeks certain 'unpleasant' individuals suffer from fatal and near-fatal accidents. I won't have anything to do with this of course, as the Slytherins themselves will give me a rock solid alibi." Harry grinned, and in the evening light, it looked truly terrifying.

"Harry, with Holly, you could have easy access to anywhere in this school. She's already hacked the wards and taken over the entire place with no one the wiser, so getting about is not a problem, though I know she primarily did it to mess with the identification wards over the school to render the 'Marauder's Map' useless." Illya pointed out. "So there must be another reason.

"Of course there are, but easy access to my victi- I mean 'upstanding' classmates, is a rather major reason. In Slytherin, it will also be easier to gather information on Voldie, and relay false information back to him through the Death Munchers' children. If you think I'm just going to overpower the guy with raw strength like I did before, you're mistaken, I like to have a bit of variety in my life." Harry chuckled with his Servants at that, remembering how the last Voldemort had been killed, through overwhelming power.

"Anyway, supper should be ready soon. I must head down to maintain appearances, but don't worry, Zelretch phoned me earlier and told me that Sakura has taken over my kitchen again." The boy pouted at that, unhappy with someone else in _his_ kitchen. "She made enough food for everyone, and that includes you three. You can eat in the kitchens, an empty classroom, the Chamber of Secrets, or wherev-"

Harry stopped speaking at that, realising that he was talking to thin air. His own cooking might be superior to Sakura's – which is something that pleased Harry immensely, even if she was quickly catching up and was set to overtake him – but she was still a good cook, and when presented with food cooked by her, not even a god would delay eating it if they could help it.

He mentally tracked his Servants as he headed down to the Great Hall for food. Hmm, perhaps he should have joined his Servants instead, he'd just recalled what fare the house elves usually served during meals and he wasn't looking forward to it.

"I wonder if Sakura would mind if I stole her to be my personal chef, or at least someone who could whip these bloody elves into shape." He muttered to himself.

xxxxx

"What was that, Lily?" Dumbledore asked the red-haired woman in front of him.

"Harry's wand is made using wood from the Forest of Einnashe, blood from a succubus, and a hair each from, Arcued Brunestud, Altrouge Brunestud, Stheno, and Euryale, the latter two being two of the three Gorgon sisters from Greek mythology." Lily told him.

"That is most disturbing." Dumbledore frowned, looking around at the others in the room with him.

Gathered there were the Order of the Phoenix, which included a number of the school professors. Sirius Black, or at least the one that had come with the alternate Harry, was also in attendance. He was the only one who looked unconcerned with the news about Harry's wand, but then again, he had probably already known about it.

"Disturbing in what way?" Sirius asked, lounging around on a conjured sofa. Dumbledore idly noted that the man's magic seemed to be a little more potent, as well as seemingly slightly more complex, than their own local Sirius' wandwork.

"My dear boy, in every way. What sort of person must Harry be for such components to be compatible with him? Do not forget how horrific the vampires are! They are utter monsters, and that is not even touching upon the Twenty-seven ancestors. Why, a single one of them, even the weakest, is a threat far greater than even Voldemort and Grindlewald combined. I am most thankful that one has never sought to ally with our enemy, as Voldemort would then be unstoppable. In history, wizards have only ever taken out two ancestors, both of them amongst the weakest, and both victories came at great and terrible cost." Dumbledore tried to convey the seriousness of the issue, especially seeing the lack of concern in the man's face.

"Really? None of the ones I've met have been like that." Everyone froze at Sirius' words.

"Padfoot, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounded like you've met an Ancestor before, and more than once at that." James Potter said, looking at his friend's alternate as if he expected him to shout 'hahaha, got ya! It was a prank.'

"Of course I have. It's a little difficult to hang around Harry and not meet people like that. Most of them seem really lazy or unconcerned, especially that goddess that visits him occasionally, Amaterasu I think she's called. Then there's Sumire, who I met for the first time about two weeks ago at the beach, drunk enough to try and use me as a pillow. There's the two succubi around Harry's house, and the fae which drop by occasionally. Then there's th- Hey, why are you looking at me like that?" Sirius was internally laughing his head off, and thanking Harry for giving him permission to reveal certain 'secrets' of his. The promise of a pensieve memory of their faces later was well worth it.

"Black," Snape sneered. "Do you really expect us to believe that an incompetent little brat like _Potter_ could ever survive even one second in such company? Don't expect us to believe your 'little pranks', you imbecilic idiot."

Most of the room relaxed at that, obviously passing off what Sirius said as some kind of trick. It was curious, however, that Lily didn't seem to be dismissing the thought out of mind, and it was something that Sirius took note of. Had Harry or one of the girls said something that made her more likely to believe the truth, as unbelievable as it was?

It was at that point that James remembered that Snivellus had just insulted his friend, even if it wasn't actually him but an alternate, and promptly began a shouting match with the potions professor. Both of them threw insults at the other, with everyone else watching them like it was a tennis match.

Sirius frowned as he settled back in his seat. Granted, he wasn't the most mature person around, but he believed that these people shouldn't be acting like they were. If they truly wanted to sort the Wizarding World out, including getting rid of and preventing another Voldemort, then they seriously needed to grow up.

Right now, their every hope was pinned onto Harry, and if Sirius wasn't aware of the strength of the no longer human boy's character, then he might have worried about how that pressure might break him. Perhaps... perhaps Harry might agree to lift the geass he'd placed on him to limit his pranks if he could convince Harry that he might be able to trick these people into taking responsibility for the world around them.

It was a thought, if nothing else.

xxxxx

Later that evening, Harry was sat in the corner of the Slytherin common room. In his hands was a book from his personal library back home, a tome on 'Divine Authority'. It was an uncommon book on Magecraft, more because of how rare divine beings were in the modern day than any other reason. True, there _was_ still a number of gods and goddesses still around, but almost all of them simply slept the time away.

Len and White Len 'played' by Harry's feet, and so long as they didn't get too vicious, he wasn't going to interfere. Next to Harry, Alt and V/V were both looking through books themselves. Alt had a fiction book she'd found in the Hogwarts library and was reading it, despite Harry saying that muggles were far better at writing stories than wizards were. V/V was reading a different book, one about dinosaurs, and seemed to be enjoying it.

Harry felt a nearby soul focus on him and approach. Once the person was stood in front of Harry, the book in his hands was knocked flying, and that irritated the slightly unstable boy a little. He looked up, already knowing who was in front of him, to find Draco Malfoy looking down his nose at Harry.

'And so it begins' Harry thought, as he rose to his feet, his expression remaining purposefully blank. 'Let's see what it takes to put this mortal brat in its place.'


	5. Sunday Morning

AN: One more chapter, just _one_ more chapter, and I'll finally be able to get into the meat of the story, rather than nibbling on the bread and butter this beginning is. Damn, this scene setting is taking its time, isn't it? Anyway, after this chapter, I'm going to focus some on my other story, Reinforced Chamber, and get a few chapters of that out and about, so don't be surprised if this goes quiet for a little while.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 05 – Sunday Morning

Harry, now standing on his feet, looked at the book that had been knocked from his hands, and then back to Draco Malfoy. He looked back at the book again, before once more looking at the little brat before him. The superior smirk on the pretentious '_dragon's'_ face was almost a challenge, asking him 'What are you going to do?' Unfortunately for Draco, Harry was simply out of his league.

SMACK!

The Slytherin common room, not the loudest of places normally – and it had gotten even quieter when Draco had approached Harry – was now silent. Not one person was even making an attempt at trying to look inconspicuous, and a few were blinking dumbly at the corner of the room.

Draco had been launched, with quite some force – from a human point of view at least – into the dungeon wall. Now, normally, this would have gotten a reaction out of the other Slytherins, what with 'Harry Potter' attacking someone, and that was exactly the problem.

As far as they could tell, Harry had not even made a move to attack Malfoy.

What the Slytherins weren't aware of, however, was that Harry needed neither incantation or even gesture to cast spells any longer. So, while from their point of view Draco had 'mysteriously' been launched into a wall, Harry and those who knew him were fully aware that it was the product of Harry's 'telekinesis'.

Shrugging, Harry scooped his book back up and sat down again. After briefly checking the book for damage – though how Malfoy would damage a book that Harry had heavily enchanted to prevent it being destroyed was anyone's guess – he sat back down and returned to reading it.

Draco, looking a bit dazed and ruffled, with his hair and robes messed up in the impact, staggered about for a moment. Once he'd shaken off his disorientation, and stars stopped spinning around his head, he looked around himself, face red with both embarrassment and anger.

He marched over to Harry once more, correctly believing it was him that had caused him to hit the wall, until he was stood in front of him. He opened his mouth, ready to explain just how things worked in Slytherin and what both of their positions in the house were, when-

SMACK!

Now Draco was sent flying off to the _opposite_ side of the common room and collided with the wall there this time. Unfortunately for Draco, that wall was further away than the other one was, so it had taken greater force to make sure he made the distance.

Oh well.

The Slytherins remained silent as Draco staggered around again, this time he was a little bruised and he had a small cut on his head above his left eye. Crabbe and Goyle, who had followed Draco across the room, looked at each other dumbly, before grabbing one of Draco's arms each to keep him in place.

A few people were glancing around, trying to work out who had cast those spells and come to the aid of Harry Potter. Whoever it was must have been fairly powerful to banish something the weight of a human clear across the common room, and rather skilled to do it silently and without waving a wand, both of which would have made it clear who the caster was.

No one. None of the Slytherins could pin down who was helping Potter. Oh, there were some students who had their wands out, but there was nothing strange about that. Some were doing what was left of their summer homework in the common room, others were just getting back into the swing of things after two months holiday. Still, there were no suspects in regards to who was helping the dimensionally displaced boy.

Not a single one realised that it was Harry himself casting the spells. After all, Harry had not even drawn his wand! He had spoken no incantation, and he had not even _pointed_ towards Malfoy with a finger, or looked at him after the first time the ferret had been sent flying, at least, as far as anyone could tell what with that blindfold in the way.

By this point, Draco had once again gotten a hold of himself, and stalked towards Harry with his wand out. His cheeks were splotchy with red, not a very good look, especially on someone so pale – though not as pale as Harry, whose skin tone was literally a pale, shimmering silver. The tip of Draco's wand glowed a dark purple colour and he opened his mouth to cast a spe-

SMACK!

This time, instead of being thrown to either side, Malfoy was banished directly backwards. His house-mates watched as he sailed over their heads to, once again, impact against the wall. There were a few muffled sniggers from various areas of the room, Draco's current predicament doing nothing positive for his standing within the house of snakes.

Next time, Draco wasn't even given the chance to snap out of his daze, he was sent flying as soon as he regained his feet, no matter how unsteady he was. The blonde boy started bouncing off everything, walls, floor, ceiling, furniture, like some kind of demented pinball.

Harry had cushioned things, a little... okay, just enough to ensure that ferret boy wasn't permanently damaged. He didn't want to break his newest stress toy after all, even if he _did_ have... other ways to release stress, what with Alt and V/V there, as well as Tamamo and Illya. At least three of them were willing to help him with stress, Illya was a bit of an unknown, as she did tease and flirt, but hadn't shown signs of commitment.

It was just as Harry had gotten to his feet, to head off to the dormitory, that Severus Snape entered the room. His robes billowed out dramatically behind him – due to a spell of his own creation, but don't tell anybody that! - and his hair so greasy with potion fumes that it was probably a solid mass.

His entry was somewhat spoiled when he was forced to duck, his godson flying over his head and off the entrance to the Slytherin common room. Fortunately, for Draco at least, the entrance had closed and he bounced off it, rather than going through it and rebounding off things throughout the entire school.

xxxxx

Severus Snape got to his feet as gracefully as he could. Drawing his wand, he slashed it towards Draco intending to cancel whatever spells had been cast on him. He raised an eyebrow in surprise when Draco did indeed stop flying around... well, after careening into a sofa that is. He could tell, his spell had been ineffective in negating what had been done to Draco, so either whatever had been cast on him had ran out at quite the convenient moment, or it had been cancelled.

His cold, dark eyes swept across the room. This event with Draco was new, and Slytherin house knew not to mess with Draco too badly. Snape was his godfather after all, as well as their head of house, so the heir of Malfoy had a _lot_ of freedom, freedom that others didn't have.

His gaze locked onto the newest... variable within his house. Yes, it would make sense that the culprit be _that_ boy. None of the first years would have the knowledge or skill to do so, not until third year at the least, but _Potter_ was both older, as well as someone who had not been a snake in his previous world, if the information he'd gathered was correct that was.

His lip curled in distaste. The original Potter boy had been bad enough. He had been charismatic, intelligent, popular, and so much more, even if he was rather full of himself. However... he'd had Lily's eyes. Lily, who was not dead, who had not been killed, and who had spurned him for James '_fucking'_ Potter of all people!

Perhaps... perhaps it would have been better for Lily to have died that Halloween night, for Severus Snape's mental health and stress at least. Knowing that she lived, in spite of his mistake, and she'd even gone on to have two more children with that smug arsehole Potter, twin daughters, drove him mad.

He still desired her, fantasized about her... Hell, he masturbated over her at night. He had gone so far as to consider creating a golem in her image simply to ease the pain and loss he felt. Golem creation, however, was not something he knew how to do, and it was an art considered lost to modern wizards anyway.

He had not known what to think when Harry Potter died. On one hand, it was a clone of his most despised nemesis, the eyes aside, who had achieved more than his father had, become even more 'perfect', and had also inherited his father's _distaste_ for Snape himself.

On the other hand, he was a child of Lily, and he had her _damnable_ eyes! He had been her _first_ child, her only male child. He had, as much as Severus wanted to deny it, a hell of a lot of potential as well, pulling in top marks in all of his classes, coming in the top three usually.

Severus' thoughts strayed for a moment, away from the male Potter and towards the females. Lily was truly a beauty, and she had passed that down to her daughters. If he was a man who would lose control of himself, Snape would have licked his lips at the thought of the delectable twin Potter girls.

Two years below Harry Potter, Rose and Blake Potter, were like their mother had been at school. Lily had been the radiant beauty that _everyone_ had a crush on, whether they'd admit it or not, and that included both blood purists and a number of females too.

Despite only being thirteen, almost fourteen, years old, the pair of them were already gorgeous enough to outshine many grown women who used numerous potions, spells, and other means of making themselves more attractive. If Severus could not have Lily, then he would gladly accept the pair of them as a consolation prize, though having all three together...

Severus was snapped out of his fantasies of dominating the three Potter females. The air in the Slytherin common room seemed heavier for some reason, and it was like a great weight had been placed on his shoulders. The shadows deepened, becoming darker, the fire and candles that lit the dungeons flickered without a breeze.

_**Domination? Bending another to your whims? Compensating for all the time you spend on your knees, are you?**_

Snape's eyes widened slightly and flickered around, searching for where that quiet, yet oh so dangerous voice had come from. He saw nothing, and there was no one stood nearby, despite the fact the voice had been whispered directly into his ears- no, directly into his mind, as if bypassing all physical means of transferring sound.

_**No? Are you a sub instead? Rather than dominating others, do you want to be dominated yourself?**_

Snape's eyes focused on Potter, the purple-haired version in front of himself. His lips hadn't moved, so he was not the one speaking, and Legilimency required eye contact, something Potter obviously didn't have with that blindfold obstructing his eyes.

_**You must have a lot of experience. How often do you bend the knee? To the Dark Lord, to Albus Dumbledore.**_

An image flashed in front of Snape's face. An endless black void as the background, twisting around, dragging everything into it. In front of that, impossibly, was a throne-like chair, crafted from black marble, and sprawled across the arms was Potter. Not the purple-haired version in front of him, but the one he was familiar, yet different... older.

_**Ah, you see me now, do you? Tell me, Severus Snape, have you ever looked into the Abyss?**_

The Potter on the throne tilted his head to the side, and Snape got a good look at his eyes, his vivid yellow eyes. A shark-like grin, filled with far too many teeth, far too many incredibly _sharp_ and _pointy_ teeth, split Potter's face in two. A moment later, the corners of his mouth further separated, splitting Potter's face into an ear to ear grin, that horrifying smile reaching half-way around his head.

_**The Abyss looks back, you know. It stares into your heart, and it's whispering to me now, telling me about your darkness.**_

Time seemed frozen. Snape could not look away from this yellow-eyed Potter, no matter how much he might want to. Streams of dark shadows seemed to gather around the boy, like fog or mist, but with a mind, a purpose. Slowly, Potter was obscured, hidden from view, and Snape was left with the echoing words in his mind.

_**Good and Evil is subjective. However, you must always be wary of your judge. Question is, who will judge you?**_

xxxxx

Harry had been rather curious about this world's Severus Snape. However, it was almost instantly obvious that he would not be getting along with this version of the man. His opinions and view of him were jaded, obscured by the Harry Potter he already knew.

That could have been broken however, The Black Winged Lord of Nightmares was not one who could easily be defined, and those who tried to fit him in a category would quickly find he didn't fit it. So, in true Harry fashion, he dug deeper, curious about the source of the enmity.

Most would probably consider it invasive, a breach of someone's privacy, but what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them, at least insofar as Harry's dive into Snape's soul was concerned. It wasn't like Harry was going to shout what he found to the world, so what was the issue?

What he'd found, well, it had disappointed Harry somewhat. Because Lily had not died on Halloween, Snape had not been able to let go of his attachment to her at all. In fact, his obsession, had grown. Thus he had an even more extreme reaction to the 'James-Potter-miniature-with-Lily's-eyes' when he'd turned up for Hogwarts in first year, and his resentment and disgust with 'Harry Potter' grew.

His obsession with Lily, as bad as it already was, had extended to her two teenage daughters as well. Now, Harry actually had nothing against people with large age gaps dating - he would be a hypocrite if he did - and he had nothing against multiple partner relationship – again, hypocrite – but what Harry was most definitely _against_ was force being used.

Yes, certain people had their 'kinks', and Tamamo had described, in full detail, some of the things she would love Harry do to her, and Liz's were easily even worse than that. That was okay, that was consent and a kink. What was not okay, was forcing the relationship in the first place, and those were the thoughts that constantly lurked in the back of Severus Snape's mind.

He had plans, viable ones, to kill off James Potter and end up with Lily Evans (Snape refused to think of her as Mrs Potter in his mind) in his arms, along with her twin daughters. Both parts of that arrangement could be orchestrated by Snape, and while Harry did not think this version a true Slytherin, he had plenty enough cunning to pull it off.

Killing James Potter was the easy part. There were a myriad of different potions that were nigh undetectable that caused death, and so many more that altered behaviour, making him more reckless, more daring, and all it takes is one mistake and that would be it.

After that, Lily would need comfort, and those same behaviour-modifying potions would ensure she came to him, her _first_ friend, for that comfort. It would take time, months, or even years, but as long as he didn't rush things no one would suspect a thing, and he would have _his_ Lily. After that, the twin girls wouldn't be difficult to convert.

Shadow of the Heart, Harry's impulsiveness, decided to act then, and Harry allowed him to do as he wished. That someone would use potions to force a relationship, if it could be called that, was something utterly reprehensible in Harry's eyes. It was one of the few things he felt strongly enough to act upon.

Harry was the only one aware of why Snape froze in place as he did. He watched Shadow of the Heart's mental confrontation with Snape, and then when it was over, he turned around and headed off to the Slytherin fifth year's boy's dormitory. V/V and Alt followed him, as did his Servants.

When he arrived, he found what was to be his bed. After checking it for eavesdropping and other similar spells, and removing all those he could find, he began to erect defences on and around it. Bounded fields went up, wards were added, Divine Authority and power was imbued into the whole thing and the ground on which it stood, until it was more of a fortress than Hogwarts could ever be.

With the curtains around the bed closed, and protected in such a way that even a Caster class Servant would find it rather difficult to get through them, he slipped onto the bed, followed by Alt, V/V, the two Lens, Holly, and his three Servants currently with him.

Now, with all of those people on a single bed, even a decently large four poster, might make it a bit crowded. However, one, none of them particularly cared and were perfectly happy to curl up together, and two, Harry had already used an internal expansion charm to make the bed – inside the curtains at least – about twelve feet square. With numerous conjured duvets and pillows, it would prove to be a most comfortable place to sleep, and that's what they did.

The nine of them decided to give the day the middle finger and sleep until tomorrow.

xxxxx

Harry was, of course, the first to awaken. He didn't actually need to sleep, just like he didn't actually need to eat, but that didn't stop him enjoying a nap every now and then. It was restful, allowing his conscious mind to fall inactive, and it refreshed him mentally, even if it did nothing for him physically.

He looked around at all of the sleeping females, and their choices of nightwear. Only V/V and Tamamo slept nude, whereas Alt and Illya wore lacy underwear, with everyone else wearing more modest garments. Whereas most males would at least blush at their choice of attire, Harry had seen more, seeing as Stheno and Euryale often chose to sleep nude and he _had_ shared a bed with them for six years.

Harry's own body was suddenly covered by shadows, and when they disappeared, he was fully dressed. He removed himself from the pile, making sure not to disturb any of them, and slipped out from between the curtains once he made sure that all of the other Slytherin males were asleep.

He pulled up short a moment later, before letting out a quiet chuckle. His next steps were echoed four times over as Tyrant, Serial Phantasm, Dream or Destruction, and Shadow of the Heart all materialised around him. They all exchanged greetings, but remained quiet as they walked through the corridors, not meeting anyone along the way.

They left the Slytherin common room, and headed out into the dungeons. Navigating with ease due to Structural Analysis telling him the arrangement of the corridors, they soon found themselves in the Entrance Hall. Approaching the doors, they all turned immaterial for an instant, phasing through both the solid material of the door as well as the magic keeping it shut.

The sharp and chilly morning air brought a small grin to Harry's face. Dream or Destruction started playing about, like a child her physical age would. Tyrant looked off towards the forest and mountain, itching to get into a fight with the local fauna, and some of the more aggressive flora as well. Shadow of the Heart put his hands behind his head, relaxing in the breeze, though his gaze did drift towards the Quidditch pitch, he _was_ an adrenaline junkie of a different sort after all.

Serial Phantasm stuck fairly close to Harry's side. Harry didn't mind at all, the draining effect of her presence was easily countered by the Third True Magic restoring his reserves every time even a fraction of his prana was drained. Besides, Serial Phantasm was a part of himself, so why would he be uncomfortable with her?

Both Harry and Serial tilted their heads up and back when they felt someone's eyes upon them. They gave the headmaster a cheery wave, slightly surprised to see Dumbledore up so early in the morning. For his part, Dumbledore had frozen in shock at seeing his dimensionally-kidnapped 'visitor' in the presence of four unknowns, and with bone white hair instead of vibrant purple as well...

His eyes followed the small group as they headed off towards the lake and disappeared behind a small copse of trees.

He hurried out of his office and down to the ground floor, Severus' report of the previous night prominent in his thoughts.

xxxxx

"Nothing." Harry sighed, looking into the Forbidden Forest. "There's power here, and plenty of it, but there's no sapience to it, no intelligence. I guess this just confirms it, there is no Equivalent of Holly or Elestia in this world."

Serial, with her arm around Harry, patted his shoulder. "There, there. We were aware that different worlds, even ones with the same origins, would have differences in their natural laws. We were lucky that our world allowed for the existence of such beings, as you have been blessed by their company."

Harry sighed again. "Yeah, I guess so, though that still doesn't stop it being somewhat depressing finding no alternates for them. I'll just have to make do with having the one currently residing within my Soul World, and she seems happy enough there."

Turning around, Harry began walking back to the castle. Serial Phantasm didn't remove her arm from his shoulders, and thus continued to walk at his side. Her eyes followed Dream or Destruction as she swam around in the Black Lake, a wide, shark-like grin on her face.

Harry's eyes flickered over to a grumbling Tyrant. He sighed. "If you really want to fight someone that badly, you have my permission to leave here and seek out an opponent. My only condition is that you don't harm innocents, and you are well aware of _my_ definition of innocents."

"Really?" Tyrant perked up.

"Just go." Harry waved her off, amused at how his 'Aggression' moved so fast she left a fading after-image behind.

"Are you sure that was a wise thing to do?" Shadow of the Heart asked a chuckling Harry. "I mean, I am your 'Impulsiveness', and even I'm concerned about unleashing _her_ on the world."

"She'll be fine." Harry shrugged. "If she takes too much damage, her essence will simply return to me, or I can cancel her manifestation myself. As for the rest of the world... there's been worse disasters than Tyrant before, and she's not a _complete_ idiot."

Shadow, who was leaning against a boulder smirked at that. "Yeah, not a complete idiot, but definitely no genius either. Hell, she cou- Who's there?" Shadow cut himself off, and he, Serial, Dream, and Harry all turned to look towards where they'd detected a source of prana, and not a small one either.

"Oh? Me? I'm just a young woman sleeping off a hangover, nothing suspicious about that at all." A female voice singsonged, getting a deadpan look Harry and Shadow. Serial Phantasm maintained a neutral expression, and Dream or Destruction dismissed her and went back to enjoying her swim.

"Even if I wasn't already aware of who you were, that sort of reply is kind of set up to make you seem suspicious." Harry replied in a bland tone. "On top of that, as I'm sure you're aware, you can't just 'casually' end up near this particular lake, what with the magically inhabited forest, the magical school, and, oh, the _magical wards_ that prevent ordinary people from getting here."

Harry looked over the woman sat in the shade of a tree. She appeared to be in her early to late twenties to early thirties and she had a... well, she had a large bust and wide hips, which with her narrow waist, gave her a rather voluptuous hourglass figure.

She was wearing a dark blue, almost black, Chinese style dress which went down to just above her knees, and stockings which disappeared underneath the 'skirt' part of the dress. She had fairly ordinary black shoes on which looked comfortable, yet fairly smart as well. Her dark, wavy hair reached her mid-back, with bangs that framed her face, and drew attention to her cute, button nose and her wine red eyes.

"May I have the pleasure of knowing what you are doing here, Sumire the water bottle, twenty-first Dead Apostle Ancestor?" Harry asked, his eyes flickering to the bottle in her hand, and his nose twitched at the scent of alcohol.

"Hmm, let me think about it." Sumire taps her chin with a finger. "Perhaps it might have something to do with, I don't know, maybe the surge of power I felt all the way from Australia?" She asks sarcastically. "A burst of power far greater than any number of wizards, or even magi are capable of, like something I would expect from a sorcerer of Zelretch's calibre maybe?"

Harry cocks his head to the side in confusion. True, when he'd arrived in this world he'd let his control of his power slip slightly, but it had all been focused downwards into the earth beneath his fee- "You felt that, all the way in _Australia_?" He asked, wondering if the pulse had managed to travel, literally, all the way through the planet.

"Well, that and Rose suddenly started having a fit. I'd just gotten her loosened up with a few shots, and I was going for a cocktail, when she suddenly flipped her lid." Sumire added.

"Rose... Rose..." Harry mulled that name over in his mind for a moment. "Ah, Rose Prophecy? The seer amongst the Ancestors?" He'd only met her once, but Harry remembered her being something of an odd woman, stick thin with incredibly sharp scarlet red eyes.

"Yeah, that's the one." Sumire gave him a look over, looking incredibly coherent for someone who spends pretty much all of her time in a state of perpetual drunkenness. "So... care to tell me who you are and why you're here? I don't recognise you, and you are particularly distinctive, not to mention not human."

Harry's lip twitched slightly. "Oh, are you saying you know _all_ non-humans?"

"Of course not." Sumire shot back. "However, the feeling I get from being around you... it's incredibly distinctive, not something I've ever felt before, though there's parts of it I feel I should recognise..." Her eyes shot wide after a moment. "Zelretch... That Aozaki girl who loves explosions... and something else, part Japanese and part Greek, though it's all covered by something else."

Harry let out a low whistle. "How did you get all that?"

Sumire smirked slightly at Harry. "You're hiding your aura, so I can't read that, even if I'm not very skilled at that anyway. However, I've met and seen people before, and the 'big' ones all have this... thing that sort of rubs off on people if you spend enough time around them."

Harry idly wondered if Sumire had a minor talent in divination at that. "Really? If that's the case, I'm surprised that there's a 'presence' on me that you've missed, given how much time I spend around a certain individual."

"If you're talking about Altrouge, then there's little point me pointing that out when I can sense her presence up at the castle." Sumire dryly replied. "Though what she's doing here when I'm certain she's currently in South America I have no cl-."

Harry raised an eyebrow as Sumire sighed and palmed her face.

"Zelretch." She said. "I felt his presence around you and I didn't instantly realise you're not from this world. Damn, maybe I am drinking too much if it's fucking with my brain that badly." Sumire gave him an amused look from between her fingers. "Did he drop you here for his entertainment? I must say, this particular prank from him seems... lacking."

Harry chuckled. "No, Gramps wasn't the one to drop me here." The Ancestor's eyes widened at his casual address of Zelretch, and Harry considered chatting with her a while, telling her his little story. "Tell me, do you recognise the name 'Harry Potter'?" He asked her.

Sumire's eyes glittered with some form of emotion there, perhaps amusement or interest. "Yeah, I do, even saw the kid once. Wizards make some of the best alcohol around, and they're crap at recognising the nature of others so it's rather easy to get into their pubs for a few drinks. It was while I was in one once, the Leaky Cauldron I think it was, when I caught a glimpse of him. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I have a little story to tell..." Harry began.

xxxxx

Dumbledore panted lightly as he finally reached the large double doors that were the entrance to the school. Seriously, how fricken' large did a school need to be to cater to the educational needs of all of the magical children of Great Britain? Currently there were only three hundred or so, but even before Tom had killed off so many, Hogwarts only ever really had about a thousand or so students. Did that many kids _really_ need a magically expanded seven floor castle with added towers and below ground levels?

It didn't help that the school seemed to be actively working against him either. The stairs were in exactly the wrong arrangement to get him down to the Entrance Hall quickly, trick stairs seemed to be popping up all over the place, and doors seemed to have randomly swapped themselves around too.

He sighed, it would have been so much quicker if Fawkes had just taken him down, but the blazing turkey had been having a nap and refused to flame the wizard down. Not to mention that Dumbledore was sure the phoenix was snickering at him for some reason.

What that Dumbledore did not know was that, since Holly had wrested control of Hogwarts castle, it really _was_ acting against him. While she'd done nothing overt – to make it look like Dumbledore was still in control, and she played along when he did things using the wards – the truth was that Dumbledore did not know he was no longer as in control as he liked to be. He did know, however, that Harry seemed to have found a way to avoid the wards, as none of them registered him or his companions on them.

Dumbledore pushed at the front doors, and then stopped in confusion when they didn't open. He took another look and found them to be sealed, like they were at night. How the bloody heck had Harry Potter gotten out of the castle when it was sealed up?

A tap of his wand – and the Elder wand in his hand seemed to have been acting... off ever since he'd done the summoning – unlocked the door and removed the magical seals. As the locks clicked open, and the bars retreated into the walls, Dumbledore contemplated Harry's possible, if not probable, connection to the four people he'd just seen him with.

That 'Serial Phantasm' woman, what was she? He already doubted she was human, but there was a whole host of beings that were humanoid, and powerful as well, which weren't human, and he had the sneaking suspicion that she wouldn't be that easily classified.

Then there were the three others he'd seen with Harry; the green-haired little girl, another one obviously not-human, the white-haired one with a sword, and Dumbledore had gotten chills up his spine when his eyes had landed on her odd sword, and the strangest of all, the black-haired male.

Dumbledore, when he'd first caught sight of that one, had almost had a heart attack. The young man, appearing around seventeen years old, looked just like James and Harry Potter, the latter being a near clone of the former, eye colour aside. Again, it was eye colour which separated this individual from those two, aside from age of course, for it had looked like them, but he had caught a glimpse of his eyes, his _yellow_ eyes.

Once the door was finally open, Dumbledore looked around the grounds to see if he could see Harry and his companions, but he found that they were nowhere in sight. He headed in the direction that he'd seen them go, towards the lake, in hopes of getting some answers.

What he found was not what he was expecting.

xxxxx

"My turn!" Sumire yipped, taking a swig of her drink. "There was this one time, I think it was about three hundred years ago, when Ortenrosse tried to establish his 'dominance' over us all. I mean, yeah, he kind of acts as the representative of the ancestors overall, but he doesn't really have much power to back it up. Altrouge, if she _really_ got into the political side of things would wipe the floor with him, not to mention her sides got all the best of us, Primate Murder being a prime example."

Harry snorted. "I can imagine, there's not much that can match up to Primy."

"Primy?" Sumire raised an eyebrow.

Harry shrugged. "I took her for walks, played fetch, and whatever else with her. Really, Primate Murder's nothing but an overgrown puppy when it comes down to it." He paused. "An overgrown puppy with the ability to instantly kill anything human merely by thinking about it, but a puppy all the same."

Sumire remained silent and gave him a blank look for a few moments before she recollected herself. "Anyway, back to my story. It was somewhere on the coast, don't ask me where as I was too drunk to remember, and Ortenrosse was trying to throw his weight around as the 'oldest and most loyal of Brunestud's servants', when out of nowhere, it just so hap-"

She cut off as both she and Harry felt another presence nearby, though obviously they used different methods of detection. Harry was able to recognise who it was immediately and sighed, he'd thought that Dumbledore would wait until later and ambush him with questions. Searching him out like this was a rather aggressive move from the old man.

Harry rapped a finger against the bottle of alcohol in Sumire's hand, a few runes etching themselves on the bottom of it, getting a quizzical look from the vampire sat in front of him. "Unbreakable and Automatic Refilling charms anchored with runes. Just channel a small amount of prana into the array and it will fill itself up again with whatever liquids inside." He explained.

"Thanks." Sumire responded. "Wizard spells are rather cool, I've never really interacted with those isolationists much though, their alcohol aside." She paused. "Actually, I've not interacted with Magi much either, as the sticks up their asses don't 'allow' them to drink too freely."

"Yeah, I know." Harry didn't turn to look at her, instead choosing to activate some of the 'enhancements' he'd transferred to his eyes, looking through the tree and right at Dumbledore as he headed in their general direction. "Perhaps we should postpone story time, we seem to have an interloper."

"I'll catch up with you some other time. I must say, it's been... interesting meeting you." Sumire waves at Harry, before disappearing, proving herself the only Dead Apostle capable of teleportation. Harry was about to stand up and approach Dumbledore when she suddenly reappeared.

"Oh, I forgot to say this earlier, but Rose wasn't just mumbling about you the other day. She said some other stuff as well, and though it's not to clear in my head, I think there's a reason to watch out while you're here, and I'm not referring to that Voldemort pipsqueak either." She told him, before disappearing again.

Harry got to his feet, frowning in thought. He barely noticed Dream or Destruction returning to him, turning his bone white hair into a pale grey. He noticed it a little more when Shadow of the Heart returned as well, darkening his hair to another shade of grey, yet still not giving it any colour. However, he did notice Serial Phantasm's hand on his shoulder, squeezing it with another strength to turn granite into dust.

"Something on your mind?" She asked.

Harry snorted. "We _are_ one being, Serial, I'm pretty sure you know what's on my mind."

"You are still the Origin, and thus the greatest of us." Serial argued. "I still believe you should speak your thoughts aloud though, it may help you with whatever is plaguing your mind, and if I am not trust-worthy to hear you out, then there are none that are."

Harry shook his head and smiled slightly. "I'm just thinking, Seri. Given what Sumire said regarding how Rose Prophecy is acting, I'm getting the feeling there's something Fate wasn't telling us about this world, something she hopes we can solve for her."

"Whatever happens, know that you will always have us." Serial informed him, returning to inside of him, making his hair gain some colour, even if it looked washed out what with Tyrant still out and about.

"Yeah, I know that." Harry muttered under his breath, before turning towards where he could detect Dumbledore wandering around.

xxxxx

"Looking for something, headmaster?" A soft as velvet voice made Dumbledore almost jump out of his skin.

"H-Harry, my boy, there you are." Dumbledore had one hand to his chest over his heart, feeling as if it had just punched a whole through his ribcage. How had someone as... visible as Harry was manage to sneak up right behind him when the only cover was directly in front of him and there was nothing but open space behind?

"Where are your companions? I saw you out here with a few people I didn't recognise, and I was worried that they were going to try and do something with you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Companions, headmaster? I'm just as alone now as I was when I left the castle. I went for a walk around the lake and into the fringes of the forest. I apologise, but I find it quite calming to see nature as it is. With how little sleep I require at night, it's rather common for me to be wandering around, as I simply could not remain doing nothing in bed." Harry shrugged.

Dumbledore frowned. He did not feel as if he was being lied to, but he also clearly remembered the four individuals that he'd seen Harry with out of the window, one of them had even waved at him along with Harry, that 'Serial Phantasm' that the alternate Sirius Black also seemed to know.

"Why won't you work with me on this, Harry? Why are you purposefully working against me?" Dumbledore asked. "Every time you lie or hide something from me, you are taking away from my ability to protect people, innocents who have done nothing wrong. If this keeps up, you would be indirectly responsible for the deaths of many good people. Do you want that, is fighting me like this worth their lives?"

Dumbledore was somewhat surprised when Harry responded by laughing. "Headmaster, trying to guilt trip me into becoming your tool isn't going to work. I am not responsible for any potential deaths, I am not attacking anyone after all, and I have no reason to try and stop them, I'm neither an Auror or a Hit Wizard." He paused. "Headmaster, what do you know about the Kaleidoscope, about the multi-verse?" He asked.

Dumbledore frowned. "The Kaleidoscope is the name a certain Magus gives his magic, and it allows him to view and travel between various different realities, many of which are vastly different from this one. How is that relevant to the current topic?"

"The multi-verse is everything and anything. It is infinite, filled with endless possibilities. In this world, and an infinite number of others, you are headmaster of Hogwarts, but in an infinite number of other realities, you are a librarian, you are a mercenary, a ministry worker, a vampire, a female prostitute, a ninja, and even a carpenter. There are an infinite number of worlds in which Voldemort won the war, in which 'Harry Potter' was never born, where there is a different boy or girl who lived. This world is but a drop in an endless ocean, so what makes this one so special that I 'must' put the effort in to 'save' it?" Harry shook his head, a small, twisted smile on his face.

Dumbledore froze in place for a moment, before registering what Harry had just said. "My dear boy, do you honestly not care? If Voldemort is not stopped then the entirety of Britain will fall under his power, and he will not step there. He will slaughter all of your friends, all of your family-"

"What friends? What family?" Harry interrupted him. "Just because someone looks and acts like someone I may or may not know doesn't mean they _are_ that person. The Lily and James Potter you know are not my parents, more like a reflection in a distorted mirror. If you think I'm emotionally invested with them, simply due to who they are in this world, you are sadly mistaken."

Dumbledore missed a step and stumbled forwards. When he regained his footing, he looked back at Harry with possibly the most pitying look ever on his face. "My dear boy, how unfortunate that you know nothing of love, the most powerful force of a-"

"Woah, hold up. What are you talking about, 'knowing nothing about love?' You think that because I'm not tripping over myself to save you all I have no love? The people here are like photographs to me, they exist, they look like the people I may know, heck, they may even act the same, but one is not the other. Don't try and force me to replace my own family and friends for these _people_, or you will _**regret it**_." Harry spat that last bit out, lacing his voice with Angra Mainyu's curses, before stalking past the suddenly frozen headmaster.

xxxxx

Harry entered the castle, and then headed towards the Great Hall. He paused when he saw people beginning to enter for breakfast. He hadn't been out that long, had he? Added to that, it was a Sunday, so why would people be getting up so early in the morning? He was a weird one that liked the sharp morning air, but humans in general liked to sleep in, didn't they?

His eyes flickered around the hall for a moment, taking note that V/V and Altrouge weren't present. The pair were probably still asleep, along with Holly, and if they wanted to sleep in then that was their prerogative. They would awaken when they did, and that was that.

There was some murmuring around the room when they noticed Harry enter the hall – with his hair, even faded due to Tyrant being out and about, he easily drew attention. It didn't help that he was supernaturally attractive, and almost every boy in the room was wondering about their sexual orientation at the sight of him – and that murmuring only grew when Harry decided to take a seat at the Gryffindor table, next to Hermione, who he saw had the books he'd given her open on the table next to her plate.

"Find what you're looking for yet?" He asked, slipping into the seat next to her.

Hermione jumped, not having noticed Harry's approach. "Sort of." She said when she'd calmed down. "I've found how to imbue magic into things, the book mentions that certain materials are better than others at conducting and/or storing a magical charge, but there's something here I've never heard of before, 'elemental affinities'."

"Well that's pretty simple, it's merely a reference to which element or elements you have the highest compatibility with. Certain elements line up with certain branches of magic. Transfiguration, for example, lines up with the 'Earth' element. Well, rather than 'Earth', it might be better to say that the element 'has to do with the physical form'." Harry explained. "Mcgonagall, if I'm right, has an earth element."

"That is true, Mr. Potter." Mcgonagall said. Since Hermione, and therefore Harry, were sat at the end of the table closest to the teachers, Mcgonagall, whose chair was directly in front of the Gryffindor table, clearly heard them speaking, they hadn't been whispering after all. "Those with the 'Earth' element tend to have large reserves of magic, as it is the element that is most difficult to work with."

"Really?" Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged. "Earth is a physical element, it is hard and stubborn. Water, an element that is closely tied to potions and the like, is a lot less stubborn and flows more freely. This, however, means you must be more subtle when using it, more in control, as the slightest change can have major effects on it."

"So, earth is stubborn, and water is subtle. There's four elements right? So what are air and fire like?" Hermione asked.

Harry chuckled. "There are actually five basic elements: Water, Earth, Air, Fire, and Ether. Water is subtle, yet easily changed. Earth is rigid and solid, but it also requires more force. Air is a flighty element, difficult to pin down, but has a wide range of benefits to those capable of mastering it. Fire is the most neutral of the elements, sin-"

"Neutral? I would have thought fire was the most aggressive element? And what's 'Ether' anyway? That do-" Hermione cut Harry off, before quickly trailing off as she felt the weight of Harry's disapproval on her shoulders. She shuddered slightly and shrunk in on herself, a tiny hint of malevolence making her withdraw like a prey animal that could neither fight nor run.

"If you didn't interupt me, I would have told you." Harry's voice was blank and neutral now, an audible hint of his reprimand towards Hermione. "Anyway, fire is neutral because it does not care what it burns, friend or foe, good or bad, all are consumed by it. Fire is the easiest element to conjure, but not one to use recklessly. Ether, you could say, is energy. It is the simplest of all of the elements, but the one most used, and ties into all others. All spells use up energy, so it could be said it is the most 'unaligned' element, which is different from fire's neutrality."

"S-so those are the five elements then?" Hermione stuttered her question slightly.

"The five standard ones at least." Harry replied. "There are those with non-standard elements out there. I have a friend who has 'sword' as an element, and I knew someone who had 'heat' as an element as opposed to fire. Then there was that guy whose element was 'light', and another who had 'thunder'."

"So we each have one element that makes certain branches of magic easier for us?" Hermione questioned.

"Or harder." Harry told her. "For example, Mcgonagall's earth element makes subtle things, like potions, more difficult for her. Not impossible, but she'd have to put in more effort to get the same result as someone who didn't have an opposing element to water."

"Very true." Mcgonagall nodded. "While my grade in potions was more than adequate, I had to study _very_ hard to get it. Transfiguration, on the other hand, was an absolute breeze for me, and I only needed to do minimal work to get good results."

"You can also have multiple elements, though that is pretty rare. That's also the most major difference between Magi and Wizards, cultures aside of course." Harry continued, surprising those who were listening in. "Witches and Wizards are capable of every spell within their magic system, the elemental bit only means some parts come easier than others. Magi, on the other hand, are limited quite a bit by their elements, but possess _far_ more power than even a group of strong wizards."

"So a magus core is very different to a wizards?" Hermione asked.

Harry snorted. "Magi do not have cores, Granger. Instead, their system of magic uses 'magic circuits'. The only 'cores' that Magi might have are things like the dragon core that was implanted into King Arthur, allowing for effective use of prana burst skills and the like."

"Dragon core? What's one of those, it sounds rath-" Hermione began to ask another question, before a shadow fell over them. Looking up, she and Harry saw Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle standing 'menacingly' over them.

"Something you need?" Harry asked casually, not intimidated in the slightest.

"I'm just observing the 'hero' that Dumbledore said would 'save' us all. You're even more pathetic than the dead one, and I never thought I'd ever say that. You're mingling with the wrong crowd, and if you keep doing so you'll end up just like the other you. How does it feel to be a fake, a replacement?" Malfoy asked.

Harry chuckled. "A hero? Me? That is... rather laughable. I would not deny that I'm capable of fulfilling the role, but I have no particular desire to. As for the company I keep, well, that is my own choice, not yours. If I am to die, it will not be because of that ridiculous 'Dark Lord' of yours. There are far more worthy opponents that I could face, but it seems I've been demoted to taking out the trash. What a pity. When I was being summoned, I kind of hoped for something more exciting, but I guess this will have to do for now."

Malfoy was not pleased with the calm way Harry acted, and his ire only grew as Harry continued talking. By the end of it, he was nearly bursting, having understood the underlying message in Harry's speech: 'You're not worth my time, you're too low on the food chain, and so is your 'lord. Now go away, you've wasted enough of my time as it is'.

"Oh, so you'd say that you're skilled?" Harry nodded. "Then I suppose you wouldn't be against a little one-on-one Patronus battle this afternoon during the club, would you?"

Harry shrugged. "One-on-one? Are you sure you wish to face me like that? I don't think I can handicap myself that badly to make it a level playing field." Harry was amused by how Malfoy twitched at that. "Regardless, whatever forces you bring to bear against me, I will face them, and I will _crush_ them."

"Agreed." Malfoy near spat before stalking off back towards the Slytherin table.

Turning back to the table, Harry saw he was getting some looks from those who'd watched the little altercation between him and Malfoy. "What?" He asked.

"As disappointed as I am that you're not in my house any longer, I think I see why the Sorting Hat put you in Slytherin." Mcgonagall commented.

Harry shrugged. "Any longer? I was sorted into Hufflepuff last time around." He then turned to Hermione. "Now, what's this club blondie was talking about?"

"Ah, within days of You-Know-Who's return at the end of last year, the dementors defected to his side." Hermione said. "With the last two weeks of the school year, Professor Flitwick put a daily 'club' on to try and teach people the 'Patronus' charm. He said that, starting this year, he would have us make our patronuses fight, so we could learn to maintain them better. Malfoy must have gotten some training over the holidays, as he could only make an indistinct shape at the end of last year, though that was one of the best efforts."

"Huh." Harry cocked his head to one side. "Well, my patronus is definitely corporeal, and rather solid actually." That last bit was muttered under his breath. "The club takes place somewhere with space doesn't it?"

"The Great Hall." Hermione replied. "Why?"

"My patronus is rather large, and rather distinctive too, but I guess you'll see that later, won't you?" Harry told her.

Neither Hermione, or any of the people listening in felt comfortable when Harry began chuckling under his breath. Word soon spread of Draco Malfoy's challenge, and the turn out for the club that evening would include almost the entire school, all of them curious about Harry Potter's patronus.


End file.
